File photo of Hannah the Mermaid in the Mermaid Lagoon exhibit at the Sydney Aquarium. The United States government has assured citizens that much like zombies, mermaids probably do not exist.
The United States government has assured its citizens that, much like zombies, mermaids probably do not exist, saying in an official post: "No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found."
"Mermaids -- those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea -- are legendary sea creatures," read the online statement from the National Ocean Service (NOS).
The agency, charged with responding to natural hazards, received letters inquiring about the existence of the sea maidens after the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network broadcast "Mermaids: The Body Found" in May.
The show "paints a wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids, what they may look like, and why they've stayed hidden... until now," a Discovery Channel press release says.
Conversely, the US government declaration offered no conclusive proof to deny the existence of mermaids.
The statement comes after another government agency, this time the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), declared there was no conclusive evidence for the existence of zombies.
The CDC had published instructional materials on how to survive a "zombie apocalypse," in what the agency now calls "a tongue in cheek campaign to engage new audiences with messages of preparedness."
The campaign was followed by a series of cannibalistic attacks in North America.
In one such attack on May 26, a 31-year-old Miami man stripped naked and chewed off most of a homeless man's face.
The Twittersphere was suddenly alive with people talking about the real and present danger of a zombie apocalypse.
The CDC was quick to respond to allegations of corpses rising from the dead to eat the living.
"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead," a government spokesperson wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
While zombies would be a big problem, popular folklore holds that mermaids are relatively benign creatures.
But the NOS statement associated the finned friends with more threatening mythological beasts.
"Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology -- in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few," it said.
美国政府向其公民保证，美人鱼在很大程度上就如僵尸一样，很可能根本不存在。一项官方声明称，“没有任何证据表明曾发现水生类人动物。”
“美人鱼——那些半人半鱼的海妖——只是传说中的海洋生物。”美国国家海洋局的网上声明如是说。
探索频道动物星球栏目五月份播出了《真实美人鱼：科学的假设》之后，负责应对自然灾害的国家海洋局便收到了数封询问美人鱼是否存在的来信。
探索频道的一篇新闻稿称，《真实美人鱼：科学的假设》节目中“展现了一幅极具说服力的画面证明美人鱼的存在，描述她们可能拥有的样貌，以及为什么一直隐于世间……直至今天。”
相对地，美国政府的声明却没有提供任何决定性证据来否认美人鱼的存在。
在这份声明发布前，另一个政府机构——这回是美国疾病控制预防中心——宣布没有确凿证据证明僵尸存在。
美国疾病控制预防中心曾出版了一些指南资料教导人们如何在“僵尸末日”避难。而该机构现在称“这只是场不必当真的宣传活动，给新近听说的人一些预防僵尸的信息。”
这场宣传活动过后，北美发生了一连串食人案。
在5月26日的一次袭击中，一位31岁的迈阿密人脱得精光，啃掉了一个流浪汉的大半张脸。
推特圈顿时炸了锅，人们争相谈论僵尸末日是否会成真，以及眼下是否有危险。
疾病控制预防中心很快便对僵尸从死人堆里爬起来吃活人的说法做出回应。
一位政府发言人在给《赫芬顿邮报》的一封邮件中写道，“据疾病控制预防中心了解，并未有任何病毒或情况会使死人复活。”
僵尸也许会成为一个严重问题，但流行的民间传说认为美人鱼是相对和善的生物。
但国家海洋局的声明却将这些身披鱼鳞的朋友与更具威胁性的神话中的怪兽联系起来。
声明称：“像吐火兽这样的半人半兽生物在神话中也大量出现——除美人鱼外，还有睿智的人马、狂野的半羊人、恐怖的人身牛头怪物，诸如此类为数不少。”
tongue in cheek: 不可当真的；无诚意的
cannibalistic: 食同类之肉的；食人肉的
benign: 和蔼的；温和的