Philippines Fishermen Killed Mermaid Enthusiast Accidentally: Fact Check

Story:

Fishermen Accidentally Killed a Mermaid Enthusiast in Philippines mistaking him for some kind of Large Fish.

Other Versions

In Philippines, Mermaid enthusiast accidentally harpooned to death by local fishermen

Fact Check:

An uncommon story doing rounds online claims Philippines Fishermen Killed a Mermaid Enthusiast accidentally, mistaking him for some kind of Large Fish. It carries a picture of a man in mermaid costume, who is allegedly harpooned to death by the local fishermen. Thankfully, the claims are not true and the same is explained below.

Origin of Story: Fishermen Killed Mermaid Enthusiast

The story in question is coming from an article World News Daily Report website worldnewsdailyreport.com published on 20th June 2019. It claims Manila Catholic Press reported about an untimely death of an American tourist in Philippines as local fishermen killed him accidentally. Accordingly, the fishermen mistook 28-year-old Andrew Stevens for some kind of large fish and harpooned him to death multiple times. Stevens was wearing a colorful mermaid tail at the time, it notes. The article also carries a photograph allegedly showing the man wearing mermaid costume.

No Credible Reports

Despite the claims, no such incident took place in Philippines and there are no credible reports about it. Like mentioned in the article, there is no credible news outlet ‘Manila Catholic Press’. And contrary to the claims, the picture does not show any American named Andrew Stevens. It in fact shows Brazilian man Davi de Oliveira Moreira posing in his mermaid tail costume back in May 2017. Locals call Davi Moreira as Sereio (merman in Portuguese). You can read more about the Merman (male version of Mermaid) on mail Online website dailymail.co.uk.

On the other hand, World News Daily Report is indeed a well-known fake news website. The satirical website also carries a disclaimer clarifying the fictional nature of their content.

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

So, the claims that fishermen in Philippines killed a mermaid enthusiast accidentally by harpooning him to death are not true. They in fact originated from a satirical publication.

Hoax or Fact:

Hoax.