CGI image from "Mermaids: The Body Found"
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released an official statement that answers the question "Are mermaids real?" NOAA said, "No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found." Animal Planet/Screenshot

After Animal Planet premiered its new special for Monster Week, “Mermaids: The New Evidence,” on Sunday, Twitter lit up with speculation about whether the aquatic humanoids were real. The existence of the half-human, half-fish beings clearly remains open to debate -- at least among those with vivid imaginations.

The new program, which will most likely duplicate the success of its sibling, “Mermaids: The Body Found,” begins by showing apparently new evidence of mermaids' existence. American tourists in Israel happen to catch footage of a mermaid and in turn the mockumentary claims there is a $1 million reward for anyone who can provide more footage of the mystical creatures.

Next, the show reveals evidence of mermaids in the U.K. As two men struggle on a boat, a mermaid-looking creature is shown jumping out of the water and glaring at the camera. While one scientist on the program claims it’s an image of a seal, Animal Planet’s lead scientist maintains it’s a mermaid.

According to the television program, P.T. Barnum, famous now as a constituent of Barnum and Bailey, had a real mermaid he was about to reveal at one of his expositions in 1865 before the venue burned down. The show also contended a mermaid had been sighted off the coast of Greenland and presented the underwater footage as its most compelling piece of evidence.

However, the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration has denied the existence of such creatures. After “Mermaids: The Body Found” premiered, NOAA issued a statement: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers and anthropologists.”

But that hasn’t stopped people on Twitter from questioning whether mermaids actually do exist. The following are some of the tweets from those who watched the new “Mermaids” program.

One tweeter wrote, "What's so convincing is the consistency of how they look in all of the images and videos we've seen they look the same #mermaids."

Israel Twitter