A famous video spirals the internet of a russian woman who seemingly is swimming around in an exhibit posing as a mermaid at the Xishuangbanna Primitive Forest Park. As she’s swimming infront to awe the kids watching, a Chinese Sturgeon passing her suddenly bites at her, engulfing her head completely. She wasn’t decapitated or any sort as she pushed the fish off her and swam up and most likely out of the tank. It was later reported that she suffered minor neck, face, and eye injuries.
She was later identified to be Mariia Zelenina– who better went by Masha. a 22 year-old Russian performer. She had said despite the pain in her neck and face, they made her continue her performance in the aquarium. Following the attack, she was offered 78£ for “moral damages”. Allegedly this money was in order to not talk about the incident.
Zelenina said,
“We were in the middle of a show, I did the first solo, another girl was waiting for me to do my solo. I almost finished and was supposed to surface but the fish just pounced on me.
“I didn’t understand what was going on, I began to push her away and get out of her mouth. When I resurfaced I realized my goggles were gone. It was shocking, I didn’t feel anything. Though I was immediately taken to the hospital.
“People like to say my superiors threatened me, but that is not the case. Of course, they didn’t want the whole country to know about it, but it was inevitable. It was unexpected of course, I was scared, but a lot of things can happen in life and you need to treat it with humor. I feel good.
“I remember this situation as a joke, I’m not afraid of these fish.”
After seeing this it leads me to wonder, what does this mean for people who continue to pose as these “mermaids” in these exhibits? It isn’t really possible to tame sea life and avoid something like this happening again. What is there to change? I personally am all for kids getting to have an enjoyable and magical experience, but at what cost? Risking innocent lives for the happiness of kids?
I think there are many alternatives in which we can change how we use this sort of entertainment. Choosing to remove larger animals, maybe all and put multiple performers instead? I think it’s highly unprofessional. What could we do to prevent things like this from happening again?