The mermaids moreton bay

摘要

IT's an idyllic spring morning on More-ton Bay, southern Queensland, and the clear skies make for perfect conditions for finding mermaids. Flocks of shearwaters bob on a glassy sea. Green turdes break the surface at regular intervals for noisy breathsbetween dives to graze on seagrass meadows. Pied cormorants pop up periodically, their long necks like periscopes on mini-submarines. Sleek-swimming pods of inquisitive bottlenose dolphins steer towards our boat. Photographer Darren Jew and I are not, of course, expecting to find mermaids, but instead the creatures that are believed to have sparked the legends. And soon enough a perfect ocean-going tail - shaped like a dolphin's, but at least a metre wide at its trailing edge - breaks the water. It waves briefly, Brisbane's distant skyline glistening behind it in the early light.