Weeki Wachee and mermaid culture are the stars of new Netflix docuseries ‘MerPeople’

It’s a great week to be a mermaid—thanks to the premieres of “The Little Mermaid” remake and the new Netflix docuseries “MerPeople.”

“MerPeople” a four-part docuseries that debuted last night, is all about professional mermaids and mer culture. Of course, you can’t talk about mermaids without including Weeki Wachee—the unofficial mermaid headquarters.

Creative Loafing Tampa Bay watched the docuseries for review, and Weeki Wachee and Florida mermaids are among the show’s top stars.

Former Weeki Wachee mermaids like Crystal Robson, Arlene Brooks, Ruth Greening and “the mermaid queen” Barbara Wynns feature heavily in the series. Some of them, like Brooks, still occasionally swim in mermaid tails.

The famous mermaids of Weeki Wachee, especially Wynns, inspired Eric Ducharme to become a merman and eventually the famous Mertailor. His Citrus County-based company chiefly creates mermaid tails—the most expensive of which can cost up to $5,000. Mertailor also sells other merpeople accessories like bra tops, leggings, themed clothing and accessories, and even “guppy tails” for the little mermaids.

“Getting the ability to share my story and my history as the Mertailor; it’s a very exciting opportunity for me and for us,” Ducharme told CL. “I’m excited to see what this docuseries will bring to the rest of the world.”

“MerPeople” chronicles Ducharme’s childhood obsession with mermaids, his experiences at Weeki Wachee and the creation of his Mertailor brand.

“I fell in love with mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs. That’s where my adventure started,” Ducharme said. Ducharme also credits legendary Weeki Wachee mermaid Wynns for taking him under her fins and bringing him into the mermaid club. As a child, Ducharme’s grandparents, who lived behind the park, frequently took him to mermaid shows.

“I was so enchanted and captivated by mermaids as a child,” Ducharme said. “And I’ll never forget the first time I met Barbara (Wynns).”

Ducharme attended mermaid summer camp at Weeki Wachee. When he asked Wynns for a tail, she snuck a discarded one to him. The rest is history, Ducharme said, as Wynns helped him get into the springs, get scuba certified and learn underwater ballet. He was around nine years old at the time. When he was older, he worked at Weeki Wachee making and repairing costumes and swimming as a merman prince.

“I was surrounded by this group of older women who no longer got paid to be mermaids, but were still so passionate,” Ducharme said. “Like this sorority, this family they kept on creating over the years.”

“MerPeople” also shows some of the final stages of construction of Ducharme’s Mermaid Aquarium Encounter, which opened in April 2022 on Gulf to Lake Highway in Lecanto, 30 miles north of Weeki Wachee. The attraction features marine life aquariums and education attractions as well as a 13,000-gallon underwater theater for Ducharme and the other resident mermaids to perform.

“It was always a dream for me…to create my own mermaid destination,” Ducharme said. “And here we are, 15 years later, 20 years later. I’m living my dream.”

Docuseries director Cynthia Wade said some of the first and last days of filming were spent with Ducharme, watching him and his team bring the Mermaid Aquarium Encounter to life. That included spending hours filming the attraction’s massive tank being lowered into the right position, spotlighting the mermaid auditions and the launch of the bold underwater Halloween show.

“So, to watch the trajectory of Mertailor’s Mermaid Aquarium Encounter unfold up close like—over those months—was fascinating,” Wade said. “This allowed the series to have lots of cinéma vérité scenes where the action unfolds in front of the camera, which is my favorite kind of filmmaking.”

Many of the people featured in the docuseries, even if they aren’t from Florida, reminisce about seeing their first mermaid show at Weeki Wachee, calling the crystal-clear springs a “magical” place.
Weeki Wachee has been hosting live mermaid shows for over 75 years, and in “MerPeople” is portrayed as the place to be for professional mermaids. It’s a dream destination for one of the other main characters of the series, Mermaid Sparkles, also known as Brittany Sparkles. She calls herself a “landlocked mermaid” because of her home in Arkansas but uses social media to share her lifestyle and book paid gigs like birthday party appearances.

In the first episode, Mermaid Sparkles ventures down to Florida to audition to be a part of Ducharme’s new pod of mermaids.

The rest of the docuseries follows the highs and lows of being a mermaid, told through the eyes and fins of those who train and save to be part of this underwater world. The emphasis on the different mermaid styles is heavy—the classic Weeki Wachee mermaids of our Florida childhoods are worlds apart from the merfolk personas on social media. Then there are the athletically trained underwater artists, many of whom are former circus performers.

There are heartwarming scenes of kids screaming their excitement over getting to swim with a mermaid. There are also screams of pain from a mermaid furiously trying to wash her eyes out after swimming in an over-chlorinated pool.

There’s cutthroat competition with an edge of danger, as seen in mermaid auditions for Ducharme’s attraction and for the elite Circus Siren Pod. Before anyone gets in the pool, founder Morgana Alba said the number one rule of Circus Siren Pod is “no dead mermaids.”
Throughout the series, Alba drills down the importance of listening to and taking care of your body as a mermaid—breath training, ear and sinus care to ward off infections and capped performances in cold aquarium tanks to avoid hypothermia.

There’s also a strong sense of community among finned folk, who often talk to each other with charmingly cheesy mermaid puns—saying “shello” to “seasters” and showing off “mersonality” to become a “FINalist” in a king and queen of the seas competition.

“MerPeople” touts professional mermaiding as a half-billion-dollar industry, showing how being a professional mermaid goes far beyond the ability to swim with your legs bound in a tail. According to MarketWatch, the value of just the mermaid tail market was $151 million in 2022, and is expected to reach $240 million in 2028.

The docuseries also touches on the why of being a mermaid—it’s a form of escapism, self-expression or a passion turned into a career. There are Weeki Wachee mermaids, of course, but there are also mermaids who work at birthday parties, renaissance fairs, corporate events and at high-end restaurants and casinos.

“As I met mermaids…I saw that mermaiding is a metaphor and a testament to the epic power of being oneself,” Wade said. “Each of the characters in this series has faced steep obstacles, and many have had a profound sense of being ‘othered.’ While their stories are distinct, each is motivated by their determination to bring forth the magic that lives inside of them, and to share this magic with the world.”

Just like the mythical sirens of lore, there is an allure or even a calling to don a colorful, sparkly tail and be under the sea in your own little mermaid story.

“What little girl or little boy doesn’t want to be a mermaid…at some point that thought is there,” Ducharme said. “And for some of them, that thought, that seed is going to flourish into something much larger.”