Jobs to Thrill Your Inner Child: Professional Mermaid

Professional mermaid-ing is a highly specialized, fiercely competitive job that’s swimming with a school of inner child-thrilling rewards, pun most definitely intended. Depending on a mermaid’s employer, location, and experience, job perks can include working with children, wearing incredibly ornate uniforms, getting paid to dance underwater, and swimming with jellyfish (and sometimes sharks) on a routine basis. Though mermaid gigs are largely unadvertised, there are a surprisingly large number of opportunities to fashion a career as a real-life Ariel.

(Weeki Wachi mermaid | Photo Credit: Rain0975/Flickr)

Mermaid Royalty

The 20-mermaid roster at Weeki Wachee Springs — a 68-year-old Florida tourist attraction around an hour from Tampa — is kept busy performing as many as three shows, seven days a week. Primary job functions include being able to eat, drink, breathe (via tube), and perform musical numbers and synchronized swimming routines underwater. Mermaids perform for large crowds while submerged 20 feet under the water, in a 400 square-foot theater filled with sea creatures including sharks and turtles. (Weeki Wachee receives 175,000 visitors a year, and Elvis himself reportedly swung by to “flirt with the mermaids” back in 1961.)

(Weeki Wachi spectators | Photo Credit: Rain0975/Flickr)

Swimming Solo

Because mermaids are essentially entertainers, those who prefer to swim solo require a more aggressive entrepreneurial drive in order to get enough customers to pay the bills. Case in point: Linden Wolbert, a 34-year-old, Los Angeles-based mermaid mogul who translated a bachelor’s in film and science from Emerson and a background as an underwater model into living proof that childhood dreams really can come true. 

“I just kind of dreamed up this idea of what I wanted to do,” Wolbert told HuffPost Women of her occupation. “Swimming is my favorite thing in the world.”

Thirty-nine-year-old Hannah Fraser is another mermaid entrepreneur.

“Being a professional mermaid is a SELF-CREATED job,” says Fraser. “There are no schools you can go to, or agents that will find you specific mermaid work. You have to be self-motivated and creative in your approach to making it happen!” 

A Day in the Life

Different mermaids have different routines, but a typical day for Wolbert, the self-dubbed “top ‘edutaining’ Mermaid Performer” in the world, might include mermaid-ing at a Hollywood party or corporate event, designing silicone “Monofins” for her online “mer”-chant shop, or, her favorite part of the job: filming Mermaid Minute, an educational video series that teaches kids about ocean conservation and water safety.

(Mermaid Minute #1: Meet a real mermaid! | Video Credit: Mermaid Linden/YouTube)

Skills and Qualifications

Mermaids require an interesting combination of creative and physical prowess. Acceptance into the elite Weeki Wachi brigade is dependent upon a somewhat rigorous audition process; assessed criteria includes swimming skills and the candidate’s capacity for making attractive expressions underwater. Applicants come from around the globe and tryouts can be cutthroat:

“(S)enior mermaids can tell in five minutes if a would-be mermaid is comfortable enough under water to make the cut,” according to The Tampa Tribune.

Those who actually do “make the cut” must then reportedly complete a challenging three-month training program before they can even think about dipping their monofins into the springs.

“Most mermaid applicants never make it to the training,” according to the Tribune.

Once a mermaid has graduated to the spring, tank, or pool, she needs enough stamina to swim for long periods of time. The Weeki Wachi mermaids perform three to four 30-45-minute shows per day up to seven days a week, according to one source. This is on top of dry-land duties such as meet-and-greets and photo ops. 

Going a solo route like Wolbert also takes self-motivation, business savvy, and an ability to thrive in a self-imposed structure. Unsurprisingly, a mermaid also benefits from a flair for theatrics and a youthful spirit. Weeki Wachi mermaids lip-synch, enact intricate narratives, and stay in character outside of the water.

“I come to work, and I am a mermaid,” explains Weeki Wachi mermaid Lauren Dodson, who hails from a mermaid family. (Her mother was a mermaid in the ’70s). “I go home, and I dream about being a mermaid,” Dodson continues. “You get sucked into it sometimes.”

Drawbacks and Occupational Hazards

Being a real-life mermaid is not all fun and games. As a whole, professional mermaid-ing necessitates a diverse, sometimes hard-to-come-by skill set and the job can be both physically and mentally taxing. For example, in addition to knowing every word of The Little Mermaid by heart, Wolbert is an experienced, scuba-certified swimmer capable of diving 115 feet in a single breath.

The extensive amount of time Weeki Wachee mermaids spend underwater must make pruney fingers and toes a given, and the spring’s chilly: 70-degree water presumably also leads to the occasional cold. Tails can also be heavy (roughy 15 pounds).

Weeki Wachi mermaids also have a number of undesirable duties to fulfill when they’re not swimming or schmoozing. The Tribune reports that mermaids do everything from scrub algae from the underwater castle to take out the trash. The mermaids are also required to unzip their tail only in private, away from the paying customers, and to wear full makeup at all times. 

Dry or stinging eyes is another consistent occupational hazard. “Blurred underwater vision is … part of being a mermaid,” Wolbert confirms. “This sometimes presents challenges while diving with animals, as you may imagine!  I have been stung in the eyes by jellyfish, and been so blinded by some chlorinated pools that I cannot see clearly when I get out!”

At times, animal-related occupational hazards can be downright deadly. Hannah Fraser, who can dive 50 feet and hold her breath for two minutes, once spent five days swimming with 16-foot tiger sharks — the most dangerous sharks in the world — in an effort to raise awareness about international shark killing.