original artwork, Justina Frantez
Is
our blue planet also home to mermaids? For centuries we’ve enjoyed myths of sea
creatures sharing our seas and shores as lovers, mothers, and lost children.
From the plaintive Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid to “mermaids-are-the-new vampires” fantasy novels,
to celebrities like Lady Gaga donning dazzling silver tail flukes — mermaids
are again swimming into our storytelling.
Animal Planet premiered “Mermaids: The Body
Found” on Memorial Day weekend amidst massive media coverage. Most reviews
focused on whether mermaids are real, missing the deeper issues the film
raises: the lethal affects of military sonar on sea life — and a very
intriguing Aquatic Ape theory.
Many of us ocean
advocates and researchers have long been fascinated by The Aquatic Ape theory
first offered in 1960 by marine biologist Alistair Hardy and made popular by Oxford-educated,
Welsh author Elaine Morgan in her many books. The Aquatic Ape theory of human
evolution is an alterative hypothesis to the reigning “Savannah” theory of homo sapiens, which states that our ancestors
left the trees to hunt and gather on the African open plains.
But recent pollen
analysis and fossil evidence reveals that the emergence of the savannah occurred
after our ancestors stood upright and
walked on four legs. East Africa’s climate was warm and wet. At the end of the
Miocene period, seas were rising and the jungles often underwater. Our
ancestors might well have adapted to a more amphibious life in estuaries and
along coastlines.
The Aquatic Ape
hypothesis asks some important questions not explained by current
anthropological dogma:
Why do bi-pedal
humans have so little body hair when other plains' predators are furry and walk
on four legs?
Why can humans
hold their breath up to 20 minutes, longer than any other terrestrial animal?
Why are human
infants more like water babies, with the instinctive ability to swim?
If humans evolved
in a hot, dry savannah, why do we have so much subcutaneous fat as if to
insulate ourselves from cold water?
Mainstream and
academic anthropologists ridicule and dismiss The Aquatic Ape theory as an
alternative to their savannah hypothesis. Academics and scientists can be as
slow to consider a new theory or ideas as established religious leaders. But despite
the academic brouhaha, the Aquatic Ape conversation is quite lively and
enduring. Michael
Odent, author of We Are All Water Babies,
offers fascinating notions of how aquatic childbearing and nurturing might have
helped our evolution.
In Aquagenesis: the Origin and Evolution of
Life in the Sea, Richard Ellis wonders why this theory of our possible
human amphibious origins has not yet been respectfully considered by mainstream
anthropologists? “Something has to replace the savannah hypothesis,” Ellis
concludes in Aquagenesis, “the
aquatic theory is gaining more and more support.” Why is science leaving this
provocative theory to Animal Planet’s Monster Week?
Water babies.
Mermaids. Aquatic Apes. How could our human imaginations not be captivated? The
Animal Planet “Mermaids” also explores another issue that is based on current
events and actual science — the dangers of military sonar in our waters.
Mermaids and Aquatic Apes may not yet be proven. But the deaths all over the
world from the lethal drone of military sonar are well documented. And increasing.
After long denying
that military sonar tests were linked to deadly dolphin and whale strandings —
from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas to Japan — the U.S. Navy has recently
admitted: The violent blasts of its military sonar may be more harmful than
previously thought. By its own estimates, U.S. Navy sonar and explosives “may
unintentionally cause more than 1,600 instances of hearing loss or other injury
to marine mammals in one year.”
Military sonar at
its most intense frequencies can disorient, deafen, and even rupture living
tissue. The acoustic trauma so shocks marine mammals that even deep-diving
whales surface too quickly and die from the bend’s — decompression sickness.
Other injuries linked to military sonar include brain hemorrhages and lungs shredded
into pulp. For the whales and dolphins whose lives depend upon their own
sophisticated echolocation, it’s like being bashed and brutalized with the
blunt instrument of unbearably loud sound waves. A horribly traumatic death.
Earth Justice,
Natural Resources Defense Council, and Indian tribes are now suing the Navy
over its plans to expand their sonar tests off Washington, Oregon, and
California coasts. Public comment meetings will be held June 11th in
Hawaii and June 20th in Southern California.
Ken Balcomb,
a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island who has
studied the mammals for years describes military sonar as “acoustic bullets.” When
a three-year-old orca, Victoria (L112), mysteriously died in February off
Washington, military sonar was suspected. Balcomb stated that injuries to Victoria’s head,
chest, and side are consistent with blast trauma from Navy sonar.
Dolphins are known to rescue us
from drowning. Can we do no less to protect them from this lethal weapon of
military sonar, these underwater sound bombs they cannot escape?
When you tune into Animal Planet’s Mermaids, dive beneath the surface of
fascinating CGI mermaid images and listen to the subtext of this timely film:
You don’t have to be a mermaid to know that our oceans are in deep trouble.
“Mermaids” is most valuable for the questions it raises. What if the Aquatic
Ape is not just entertainment? What if it’s a viable theory of our own origins?
Would we take better care of the oceans?
And what can we do in real-life to
stop this military sonar that is an underwater holocaust for our marine
mammals. After all, this water planet is our first womb and our life support.
Maybe it’s because our islands and
coastlines are sinking that we’re obsessed with mermaids. Maybe like those
possible amphibious ancestors, we might again learn to adapt to a water world. Homo Aquaticus.
Brenda Peterson's recent novel, ANIMAL HEART, explores the issues of military sonar, dolphin strandings, and the Aquatic Ape theory.
Brenda Peterson's recent novel, ANIMAL HEART, explores the issues of military sonar, dolphin strandings, and the Aquatic Ape theory.
