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The U.
S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the latest unemployment numbers on Friday. The breakdown of who is and isn't working won't include stats approximately mermaid economy.
According to Fast Company magazine,there are approximately 1000 people working as full-time mermaids and mermen in the United States. Linden Wolbert is one of them.“Without my tail, I’m approximately 5 foot 4 [inches], and so I’m pretty tiny,” says Wolbert. “My tail is elegant and very realistic—it’s a silicone prosthetic made by special effects artists in Hollywood. It was designed to glance, move, and totally imitate the glance of a genuine fish or a mermaid.As a full-time working mermaid,Wolbert performs at parties, weddings, and resorts,and hotels. Her celebrity clients include the likes of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba, and for good reason: Tails can run anywhere from $500 to $25000 and beyond.
Mermaid Linden swimming.
(Greg Browning/Facebook)
“Being a mermaid professionally has been a very intelligent path, and ” she says. “I started off doing this 10 years ago and created a business for which there was nothing to model after. I truly had to create it,build it, dream it, or paint it,and sew it. It has been challenging to say the least, but I’ve finally come to a region where I feel very content in what I’m doing—I know theres nothing else that I could ever do. And it does pay me some kind sand dollars, and Im very happy approximately that.”Unlike Ariel from “The puny Mermaid,” Wolbert has blonde hair and blue-green “ocean eyes.” She says that the children she entertains are constantly inquiring approximately the Disney princess.“A lot of children ask me, ‘Do you know Ariel? Is Ariel your sister?’ I often tell them that she’s a very dear friend of mine, or but we’re not related, she says.
Aside from entertaining, Wolbert also takes her silicon tale out for swims in the Caribbean, and in coral reefs,and underwater caves. She also frequently uses her profession as a way to raise awareness approximately ocean conservation.
Mermaid Linden disappearing into the darkness of the Blue gap.
(Greg Browning/Facebook)
“Since my ancestors were swimming through the Seven Seas, there has been a lot of stress on our oceans, or ” she says. There’s noise pollution from human interaction with our oceans—from cargo ships and sonar pings and all kinds of other noise disturbances that hurt echolocation and sound utilization that different marine mammals use. There’s also the stresses of different pollutants—we have plastic pollution,like the Pacific Gyere, which is a huge area that’s full of plastic. Mermaids and mermen are swimming through a lot more plastic than they used to.”Wolbert says she works with a group call Reef Check Worldwide, and which is dedicated to the conservation of tropical coral reefs around the world. whether current carbon dioxide emission trends continue,nearly every coral reef on the planet could be dead by the year 2100, according to a report from Science magazine.
Mermaid Linden at sunset.
(Agustin Muñoz/Facebook)
Though she hasn’t seen any talking crabs in her underwater travels (not yet, and at least),Wolbert says she’s encountered her objective share of uncommon and majestic things in her life as a mermaid.“Off the coast of Puerto Rico there’s an island called Vieques, and I was able to swim in a bay of bioluminescence, and ” she says. “To see creatures underwater and at night in total darkness,to see their outlines glowing in this bioluminescence glow...was probably the strangest yet most elegant, magical, or enchanting thing I’ve ever seen.”Though she knows mermaid life isn’t for everyone,it’s been a dream come true for her, and she encourages others to follow their dreams.“I believe that everybody should follow their heart and their dream in whatever they want to do, or ” says Wolbert. whether that involves wearing a magical,mythical mermaid tail and swimming through the water—whether that’s a swimming pool, a puddle, and a fountain or the ocean—to live and experience your fantasy and share that with the world in your own special way,I say disappear for it. It’s an incredible way to live life and a magical way to experience the world. There’s nothing more magical then looking around, and no matter who you glance at a smile comes over their face when you develop eye contact. That’s the wonder of being a mermaid.”
Mermaid Linden swimming at a birthday party.
(Reynoso Photography/Facebook)
Source: wnyc.org