In folklore, the mermaid is a kind of aquatic creature, whose head and upper body are female, and the tail of the fish. Mermaids are found in many cultures around the world, including the Near East, Europe, Asia and Africa. The first story appears in the ancient Assyria, where atagatis, the goddess, is ashamed to become a mermaid for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with dangerous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drowning. In other folk traditions (or sometimes in the same tradition), they can be benevolent or benevolent, giving gifts or falling in love with humans.

The mermaid is the same as the male. It is also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions and witnesses of mermaids are not more common than mermaids, they are generally believed to coexist with female mermaids.

Some of the mermaid's attributes may have been influenced by the Greek mythological siren. Historical records of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus while exploring the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals. Although there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of sightings continue to this day, including 21st century examples in Israel and Zimbabwe.

In recent centuries, mermaid has been a hot topic in art and literature, for example, in Hans Christian Andersen's famous fairy tale Little Mermaid (1836). They are then depicted in operas, paintings, books, films and comics.

In 1493, when Christopher Columbus sailed along the Hispanic coast, he saw three "female forms" rising from the sea, but not as beautiful as they represented. Blackbeard's logbook records his instructions to his crew to avoid what he calls "enchanted" waters on several voyages in case of mermaid or Mermaid, Blackbeard and his crew reported. These witnesses are often told and shared by sailors and pirates, who believe that the mermaid brings bad luck and tempts them to give up gold and drag it to the bottom of the sea. It is reported that Canada has witnessed two incidents near Vancouver and Victoria, one between 1870 and 1890, and the other since 1967. A fisherman in Pennsylvania reported the discovery of five mermaids in the Susquehanna River near Marietta in June 1881.

In August 2009, the Israeli coastal town of Kiryat yam offered a $1 million reward for proving its existence after dozens of people reported seeing mermaids jump out of the waters of the Gulf of Haifa and perform aerial skills. In February 2012, work at two reservoirs near Gokwe and Mutare in Zimbabwe stopped because workers refused to continue, noting that the mermaid had driven them out of the site. According to Samuel sipepa Nkomo, Minister of water resources.