What Do Mermaids Eat? Everything You Need to Know

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Discover more about the mermaid diet, according to myths & legends

Co-authored by Jason Zuk and Maryana Lucia Vestic, MFA, M.Phil.

Last Updated: June 16, 2025 Fact Checked

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What type of food do mermaids eat?

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Do mermaids eat people?

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Mythology & Folklore

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FAQs

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Mermaids are beloved mythical creatures that are said to live beneath the ocean waves. Have you ever thought about what it is that mermaids eat? Well, we have—and we’ve got answers for you! In this article, we’ll explore what mermaids eat, according to existing stories from around the world.

What food do mermaids eat?

What a mermaid eats depends on who is telling the tale, since mermaid facts vary from story to story. Some people believe mermaids eat sea greens or shellfish, while others believe they eat sea cakes. In certain myths, they are violent and eat people.

Section 1 of 4:

What type of food do mermaids eat?

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Some people believe mermaids enjoy a diet of sea greens. Some people believe mermaids enjoy a diet filled with the many greens that exist naturally in the sea. From seaweed to kelp, these underwater “vegetables” provide plenty of fiber, vitamins, and minerals like magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc. Specific types of sea greens are ahead:^{[1]
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- Kelp: A type of seaweed with a long, strong stalk.
- Algae: An aquatic plant containing chlorophyll.
- Nori: A seaweed found in Japan with a coarse texture.
- Kombu: A type of Japanese kelp known for its umami flavor.
- Wakame: A brown Japanese seaweed with a milder flavor than nori.
- Seagrasses: Grasses found in shallow waters, like eel, tape, and turtle grass.
- Other rare underwater plants: It’s said that mermaids feast on pearls or fruits of the sea, like greens and plants that magically grant them longevity.
- While many mermaid tales don’t specify whether they eat sea grasses, the behavior is based on animals that have inspired mermaid myths, like dugongs and manatees. These creatures are herbivores who eat sea grasses, which could have influenced certain stories.^{[2]
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It is possible that mermaids eat fish. Some people believe mermaids consume other sea life, including both fish and shellfish. This idea focuses on mermaids finding sustenance by seeking out smaller, weaker forms of life. It’s sometimes thought of as cannibalistic for a mermaid to eat other fish, but the rules about what mermaids eat aren’t always clear. Examples of fish a mermaid might eat include:^{[3]
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- Flying fish
- Shrimp
- Crabs
- Jellyfish
- Lobsters
- Sardines
- Stories of mermaids from coastal cultures often depict mermaids as eating fish and other underwater life. For instance, in the Japanese folktale Yao Bikuni, a mermaid called the "800-Year Nun" is mistakenly eaten as fish, which grants eternal youth to the person who ate her.^{[4]
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Section 2 of 4:

Do mermaids eat people?

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Mermaids are sometimes depicted as eating people, but not always. It all depends on the mermaid myth you’re looking at. In many folktales, mermaids are seen as being friendly to humans, but occasionally, they are depicted as violent towards humans and even eat humans.
- Examples of mythological mermaids (or variations on the mermaid) that may devour people include Ipupiara (a Brazilian myth), El Hombre Caimán (a Colombian myth), and the Vodyanoi (a Slavic and Eurasian myth).

Section 3 of 4:

Mermaid Mythology & Folklore Around the World

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This mermaid has the body of a fish and the shaved head of a Buddhist priest. He’s known to drag entire ships underwater and drown everyone on board. The way to protect against Hai Ho Shang is to burn feathers on deck or try doing a specific ritual dance.^{[5]
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Kappa (Japan) Kappa has humanoid features, along with webbed hands and feet, a turtle shell on their back, and a depression in their head that retains water. They like to wrestle humans underwater and eat cucumbers; the kappa are known as both tricksters and healers in the Japanese culture.^{[6]
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These Southeast Asian mermaids live in the Underworld; Nagas are usually male, while Naginis are female. They are half-human and half-snake, but can also appear as humans carrying a bunch of snakes. Nagini and Nāga are considered protectors of treasure that can live on land or in the sea.^{[7]
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Ipupiara (Brazil) Ipupiara have seal heads, human bodies, and fish tails. This mermaid existed in the Tupi culture of Brazil during the 16th century. They’re also known to kill people by hugging them and then devouring them, which is rare among mermaid lore.^{[8]
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This creature has a human head and an alligator body, and was originally a man condemned for spying on nude women. He emerges once a year to hunt humans as prey, so he is among the deadlier of the mermaid-like creatures in mythology.^{[9]
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Ojibwa Mermaids (Canada) In the indigenous Anishinaabe culture in Canada, mermaids and humans live separately from one another. They rarely interact or communicate, unless by chance a human falls in love with one.^{[10]
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Mami Water represents several water creatures from African mythology, and is portrayed as both a woman and a man. The lore surrounding Mami Water ranges from her inviting humans to her home and offering spiritual enlightenment to invading dreams. She is also associated with healing ailments and can fly in a tornado in South African folklore.^{[11]
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Jengu (Cameroon) Jengu are water spirits who act as messengers between humans and gods. They have long human hair and fish tails. The Duala and Bakweri people of Cameroon worship Jengu as a healer.^{[12]
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Lorelei is part of a German folk legend associated with a woman named Lore Lay, who is condemned to a nunnery but instead falls to her death off a steep rock called Lorelei. She becomes the subject of a 1824 Heinrich Heine poem about Lorelei singing on the rock to lure men to their deaths.^{[13]
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Melusine (Europe) Melusine has a fish or serpent tail, along with wings. In a popular European folktale, she married a human man, but he’s not allowed to look at her when she’s taking a bath (hint: he looks). She’s also associated with a story where her song attracts a shepherd who kisses her 3 times. She slowly turns into a serpentine, and ends up poisoning everyone at the wedding of the man who dared to kiss her.^{[14]
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Scylla (Greece) Scylla is a famous Greek myth monster who lures sailors in Homer’s The Odyssey. She is said to be cursed by Circe, the sorceress, for stealing a man’s interest away from Circe. She also appears in James Joyce’s Ulysses and John Keats’ Endymion.^{[15]
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- Scylla appears in the following text from The Odyssey: “They writhed gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there at her cavern’s mouth she bolted them down raw.”
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Selkies (Northern Europe) The Northern European legend of the Selkies centers around a story where a man finds some women sunbathing, near sets of seal skins. By stealing one woman’s seal skins, he gets her to marry him and have a family. After finding her seal skin, she escapes back into the sea. Selkies are Celtic mythology creatures who are also known for both saving and drowning fishermen or taking them back to live with them in underwater villages.^{[16]
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The Rusalka lives in lakes and ponds, and is said to lure young men to drown. They’re also considered everything from fertility goddesses to abused women who drowned themselves. They’ve even been known to tickle men to death!^{[17]
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Vodyanoi (Slavic/Eurasia) In Slavic mythology, Vodyanoi are old men with fish faces, algae-covered bodies, and slimy beards. They’re known to capture anglers and make them into slaves, drown (and sometimes eat) humans, and keep human souls in teapots. People would protect against them by placing a bit of tobacco in the water.^{[18]
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In Aboriginal myths, these creatures hide in seaweed of the Murray River in South Australia. Parents would warn children not to play too close to the waters at night, so they don’t get taken by the Muldjewangk.^{[19]
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Adaro (Solomon Islands) These destructive mermaids and mermen are known to shoot at humans using flying fish. They have the dorsal fin of a shark, tail fins on their feet, and gills behind their ears.^{[20]
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Section 4 of 4:

Mermaid Diet FAQs

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What are mermaids? Mermaids are deep-sea-dwelling creatures who are half-woman, half-fish. They are said to have the head and upper body of a woman and the lower half of a fish with a single fin. Mermaids are believed to be able to breathe both underwater and on land.
- “Mermaid” is made up of the Old English "mere,” meaning “sea,” and "maid," meaning “girl.”
- One of the earliest tales of mermaids dates back to 1000 BCE in Syria with the goddess Atargatis diving into the ocean and transforming into a fish. ^{[21]
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Are mermaids real? Mermaids could be real—we don’t know for sure. There is no scientific evidence that suggests that mermaids are real, but some famous seafarers believed that they encountered real mermaids. For example, Christopher Columbus was said to see a mermaid in Haiti in 1493, and John Smith reported one in 1614 in Newfoundland.^{[22]
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Are mermaids good or bad? Mermaid symbolism varies across cultures. They often represent fertility and life within the ocean. Other tales portray them as scary creatures who wish to lure sailors to their death. In these stories, mermaids become a symbol for storms and disasters at sea.^{[23]
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- Mermaids can represent both good fortune and disaster. Sailor folklore is full of stories of mermaids either coming to the rescue as a symbol of good luck or as destructive beings luring sailors to their doom.
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Are mermaids and sirens the same thing? Mermaids and sirens are two different types of creatures. Mermaids are shown as half-woman, half-fish with a woman's head and body and a fish's tail. Sirens are depicted as half-woman, half-bird creatures. They have the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a bird. Mermaids are associated with the sea, while sirens appear in The Odyssey, where they lure sailors with their tempting song. To act like a siren means that your voice and the song you sing are enchanting, but also dangerous.^{[24]
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Do mermaids need to drink water? As mermaids are mythical creatures based on fish and other sea life, it’s generally accepted that they don’t need to drink water. Like other fish, mermaids can breathe underwater, which means they need to keep water outside their bodies, just as freshwater fish do. If they’re like ocean fish, they absorb water through their gills through the process of osmosis.^{[25]
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What is the Little Mermaid's favorite food? The character of Ariel in The Little Mermaid doesn’t speak about a favorite food, but enjoys eating seaweed and kelp in the film. When she becomes human near the end of the film, Ariel does receive a gift of strawberries from Prince Eric, but it’s not made clear whether she eats them or not.
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What are male mermaids called? In mythology, male mermaids are referred to as mermen. They’re also sometimes called tritons. They’re not featured in many mermaid folktales, but usually appear as the offspring of a mermaid and a man. One of the earliest mermen in mythological lore is the Babylonian Ea, also known as Enki in Sumerian mythology; he is joined by Dagon, the sea god of fertility. The most famous merman in mythology is Triton, the Greek son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.^{[26]
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