My first tryst with mermaids was in kindergarten in a fancy dress competition. My aunt had created a fin out of yellow chart paper. When the 2 feet something mermaid in me lost, I remember my aunt saying, “Mermaids are shy of humans, so they don’t accept prizes.”

Last week, I watched Mermaid, The Body Found, a programme that will air on Animal Planet on September 22 at 8 pm.u00a0In April 2004, two boys are the first to find whales, in large numbers, washed up on the shore of Washington state. Later, this was discovered to be the largest whale beaching ever witnessed. Before reporting the incident, the boys spend some time wandering around the carcasses, and notice the presence of another strange creature, which was not a whale. One of the boys, who had a camera, captured footage of the sight, which was never made public.