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The CILC presented the idea to their There was a core belief that fueled all those
FROM THE CEO &
EDITOR IN CHIEF
This issue we are combining our letters into
one joint message; one voice.
The first half of 2021 has been eventful.
We have learned a lot, accomplished a lot,
discovered a lot more than we expected,
and made a lot of decisions.
We have uncovered our resolve, and what
has now become Fins Magazine’s guiding
mantra. One, mermaiding is about a spirit,
community, inclusiveness and acceptance.
And, two, mermaids can bring awareness
and education to relevant environment
and social issues.
If we are right, the industry stands at the
precipice of change. Once just cosplay and
parties, mermaiding is evolving into an
actual sport with mermaid certifications,
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and the opportunity for community
outreach and involvement.
We believe that mermaids bring audience,
and audience can bring awareness, and
with that awareness comes the hope of
change. We submitted a proposal, and
created a partnership with CILC (Center
for Interactive Learning and Collaboration)
for World Oceans Day around the idea
of having mermaids interviewing and
discussing marine animals, environmental
issues, and Biodiversity.
We were feeling validated. CILC is one of
the oldest and most established distance
learning platforms in existence, and they
had agreed to reach out to their providers
and endorse the idea.
content providers, to which we did a
formal presentation and where promptly
annihilated. The academics scoffed at the
idea that anyone in costume pretending
to be mermaid could have credibility,
and suggested that it was demeaning
to even state it was possible. There was a
resounding, “No, we are not interested,”
from all except one.
The director at the CILC was discouraged
on several levels. A teacher herself for
many years, she too believed that fantasy
and science fiction increased the efficacy
of learning and retention, particularly
on in science and environmental issues.
She has a passion for teaching and the
unwillingness of others to at least try this
experiment was disheartening.
We have experienced the idea of mermaids
being demeaned in the past and were
determined to change the conversation.
The only way to do that was to demonstrate
with empirical data that what we believed
was true. We stepped up and said we would
provide the aquariums, zoo’s and rescues
globally to make this event happen.
At this point in time, for all practical
purposes, we were back to square one,
with about three weeks to put together a
global live streaming event.
We did not waver for even one moment
in our belief and purposefully pushed
forward. Pat worked tirelessly, as did
Smokie West, Paige Moyles, Leah Arfele,
Jacy Peck, Ria Loveder, Graceanne Taylor,
Scarlet Emrath, and Zee Blackwell. There
was very little time to secure the locations,
the mermaids and the equipment. Live
streaming any event is a challenge; live
streaming from five locations in different
time zones across the globe increased the
challenge exponentially.
The CILC was hesitant to announce or
promote the event until we could prove we
could do it, and rightfully so. It was up to
our team to put together all the pieces, and
it had to be done quickly or there wouldn’t
be enough time for the CILC to present the
event to its base of teachers, schools and
institutions.
This was the first real test for us as a
publication and as a team. A massive
opportunity with a global audience and a
crowd of academics waiting to say, “I told
you so,” if we failed.
fins-magazine.com
working so hard. We had an opportunity to
show that practicing mermaids were not
people stuck in a fantasy world or simply
wanting to show off in costumes, but are,
in fact, passionate, educated and diverse
global culture concerned about real issues
and ready to work help effect change.
The end result:
1. We partnered with aquariums,
rescues and zoos to further
conservation awareness,
2. The CILC put out the event
notification,
3. The mermaid crews and
equipment were on site and
ready to go with experienced staff
managing it,
4. The mermaids were in tails with
microphones and professionally
interviewed resident experts,
5. Our event broke records for the
CILC viewership,
6. The capacity of the video
streaming was overloaded, entire
classrooms were not able to log in
and so we cannot know how many
or how big our audience could
have been,
7. Due to the streaming interruptions
mentioned above, we do not know
how many viewers we would have
had, had the event run seamlessly,
but we do know we had over 36,000
unprecedented positive response
simultaneous viewers, which was an
for an educational event.
The accomplishment for the mermaid
community is huge, our team was amazing,
and the resulting event was an incredible
experience for all. We now have empirical
data to move forward with planning
future events—to share our message of
conservation of the beautiful marine life
and oceans that sustain the mermaid in us
all.
We cannot wait to make more of a splash
in this arena and are planning new events
to dive into!
It’s time for us to make waves,
JW and PP
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