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there is a creature called a sea cow *they are a threatend species being bred in captivity to increase the population. they are no longer endangered* that is roughly human sised. it was said that backc in ancient times, sailors saw them from a distance and thought they were mermen of sorts. ive heard of a story that says that the "mermaids" were just regular women bathing that were spotted by the crew of a ship. they thought they were some sort of mermaids one, because they could only see the top halves of their bodies, and two, they had heard of the "mermen"

i think he was too. i know they are cute but beautiful women?
someone had a tad too much sea water

I definately believe that there is a possibility that they could exisit because there is so much ocean that we haven't explored yet. Plus most legends seem to be based on fact. smile

I think mermaids are real. And unlike Disney they are preditors eating people who somehow fell into the sea and were later eaten....Wow Merfolk had a feast after the Titanic sinking lol

Ahh.. I don't like looking at that... It's spooky.

Er, mermaids were probably real once... then we fished them to death, haha.

Yeah I’ve seen the ‘Fejee mermaid’ on ‘Ricky’s believe it or not’ and they say that it is defiantly a fake mad out of a monkey skeleton or something like that.

I don't think we can ever know for sure whether they're real until we come in contact with them and talk to them and junk.

However, as for mermaid dispositions... like any other creature, I don't see how you can say they are "good" or "evil"... there are some that might enjoy hurting people, and some that may like to help others... some who are afraid and some who are bold.

And then we have legends of the Loch Ness monster.
Faeries being evil..
Dracula...
Demons being cute cuddly things (okay, that's really just little kids trying to make themselves feel important and special for being demon/vampire/lycan hybrids, but that's another thread)
Moon made of cheese and little green moon-men...
Bloody Mary...
Witches flying...
The rule of three...
Milton Bradley' Ouija board...
John Edwards AND Sylvia Brown
zombies eating flesh...

The point is, you can't believe every legend you read or hear about because there's a certain level of fallacy contained within. When it comes to creatures that have their own supposed complex culture and societal structures, you'll get a pretty even mix of both.

And when it comes to things of an otherworldly nature, you should be willing to do a little bit of research. And as I'm sure that it's been said already, Wikipedia does not count as research. Get some books and do a little more digging, and you'll find actual answers.

A lot of that stuff was, like hell, made up just to scare good little Christian boys and girls from doing what their parents, and the rest of our wonderful Western society, deems as "bad things."