In the town of Kiryat Yam, Israel, dozens of people have reported mermaid sightings since early 2009. The local government has offered a $1 million reward for anyone who can prove by photo or capture that mermaids do exist.

A town council spokesman said, “Many people are telling us they are sure they’ve seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other… People say it is half girl, half fish, jumping like a dolphin. It does all kinds of tricks, then disappears.”

Asked whether a dolphin or large fish could be a more rational explanation, he insisted, “They say it is a female figure, it looks like a young girl.”

Witness Shlomo Cohen was one of the first to identify it. He said, “I was with friends when suddenly we saw a woman laying on the sand in a weird way. At first I thought she was just another sunbather, but when we approached she jumped into the water and disappeared. We were all in shock because we saw she had a tail. At least five of us saw it and we all couldn’t believe it.”

The town council, which is offering the reward, insists that the mermaid mania is not just a marketing ploy to attract tourists, though it does hope tourists will come out to try their luck at the $1 million prize.

An American organisation claiming to defend the rights of mermaids threatened to sue the town after it offered the reward for capturing a mermaid. The organisation, the Mermaid Medical Association in Brooklyn, said the offer “badly and outrageously damages the legendary mermaid legacy.”