‘This interview was done with Hannah who is over in LA. I have used parts of other interviews Hannah sent me as well. Obviously I didn’t take her photo which I always do in my stories but she provided me with 2 beautiful photos taken by Shawn Heinrichs including one in comments. I have also attached a couple of video links of Hannah swimming with sharks and more. Please check out her website. www.hannahmermaid.com She is amazing.’
Hannah Fraser – “
Where were you born? –
“I was born in Chertsey, London. My parents left to live in Los Angeles when I was just 2 years old, and then at age 8 my mother took us to Australia where I lived until I was 36. I now reside in Los Angeles again, where I find the most passionate, creative group of people making their dreams come true.”
What was your childhood like? –
“I was really shy as a child. When I was underwater, I didn’t have to relate to other people. I found it challenging to put my feelings, emotions and dreams into words and share them, and when underwater there was no pressure to communicate this way. This shyness may have been an effect of moving around so much as a child (I went to 14 different schools before the age of 10!) I was always the new girl, and that either imbued me with an uncomfortable power of others interest in me, or a downright ostracism which often left me swinging on the playset alone and crying! At age 12 I realised I didn’t like myself, and I realised that I wouldn’t want to be friends with me either! I decided to do one thing every day that scared me; whether it was speaking up in class or talking to the cute boy I liked, I started taking steps to become the kind of person I could admire. Even when I gained more confidence, I felt more at ease using my body to express and my art to communicate. Moving into a role where I do public speaking, and am a voice for the animals that cannot speak for themselves has been a wonderful challenge in opening up and trusting my message.”
What made you want to become a mermaid? –
“As a kid I naturally swam with my legs together and felt totally comfortable underwater. I drew pictures of mermaids all the time. I have always been fascinated by stories of mermaids.. as a child I drew stick figures with tails! When I saw the film ‘Splash’ when I was 9 years old, I realised it was my dream come to life, and I created my first mermaid tail with the help of my artistic and supportive mother. I loved it so much that I swam around in my pool in it for months on end until it disintegrated! Later in life I learned to swim underwater with a hand crafted, fully functional mermaid tails, that took me many months and thousands of dollars to design and create. Being a professional mermaid was a job I created. There are no schools I could go to, or agents that would find specific mermaid work for me. I had to be self motivated and creative in my approach to making it happen!”
You are obviously super fit. What is your training schedule?
“I have practiced yoga and deep breathing my whole life which is invaluable in breath holding, and also dance and movements to create a flexible spine and fitness. A lot of being comfortable underwater is to do with your fear levels and surrender to being in a different environment. I find it mediative and calming, which slows down the heart rate and therefore requires less oxygen to the brain. If you can get into a semi trance-like state and breath slowly and deeply before entering the water your skills will increase a lot.I can hold my breath for over 2 minutes and free dive 50ft.
Your favourite place to swim in the world? –
“There are different places for different experiences. I love Tonga because it’s one of the only places in the world that you can swim with Whales, and there are some really cool underwater caves in the cliffside that are like an underwater studio with the most epic lighting! I love the Caribbean because it’s warm and crystal clear water and there is a diverse range of life to interact with…sharks, rays, dolphins. Kona Hawaii also has a lot of amazing sea life, and clear waters, but it’s a bit colder! I’ve seen Whales, Pilot Whales, Sharks, Dolphins, Turtles and Manta Rays all in one day in the ocean!
You swam with a Humpback Whale and her baby. What was that experience like? –
“We were way out in the ocean, looking down at the endless blue depths. Suddenly the mother began to surface underneath me, getting larger and larger. I realised I could end up in this whale’s blowhole or mouth, but the whales seemed so aware of their own size. It was amazing how conscious the mother was of its effect on me, down to the swishing of its tail. You can feel that intelligence emanating from them; you look them in the eye and there’s this ancient consciousness looking back and then the whales started singing to each other. It was mind-blowing. The mother’s song was so deep and so rumbly, it was like standing in front of the largest speaker stack in the world—it was this massive whale rock concert that caused your ribs to vibrate. I felt like it was rearranging my DNA molecules; it was reverberating through every cell in my body. The baby whale was singing in such high-pitched trumpeting notes that it was nearly too loud and too high pitched for my ears to deal with. Water carries sound so it felt like I was bathing in sound from every angle. It was just phenomenal. When we got back in the boat, I cried. It was a powerful emotional release. I knew at that moment that I would put my life on the line to protect these creatures. I felt so grateful that even after thousands of years of humans decimating their species, they’re still willing to be so interactive, joyful and curious with us.
Tell us about swimming with sharks? –
“Swimming with 14 ft great white sharks was totally overwhelming!! I was so scared before I did it, I had sweaty palms and nightmares for weeks beforehand, but when I did it.. Although I was definitely in a fight or flight, moment of facing death experience, I was very calm and focused on where I was, what I had to do and being super conscious of every move that the sharks made! I was on a stinky old fishing trawler off Guadalupe Island in Mexico, The experience was an incredible opportunity to face all of my fears of the predator of the ocean. Although I’d been swimming as a mermaid for quite a few years I’d never seen a shark, and of course that’s the first question everyone asks: Aren’t you afraid of sharks? I always replied, Well, yeah, but that’s not going to stop me from following my passion! So when I had the opportunity to go swim with sharks I thought well, this is the moment, if you want to be a real mermaid! I threw myself in the deep end, and was the first mermaid to ever be filmed swimming with great white sharks in the wild, with no cage, wearing a tail, breath holding, with no safety gear! So I’m out there, I’m holding my breath, in a tail with my legs bound together and with no cage, and I asked…What happens if a shark comes at me and I feel like it’s gonna eat me? and they were like, Well, they’re just like wild dogs, you just have to show them who’s boss. Just don’t turn tail and run away, because then all its predatory instincts will be aroused. Just show them who’s boss. I was thinking…Are you kidding, how am I going to do that, let alone even remember to do that in a moment when a great white shark is coming at me?
Now, the theory was that there were going to be guys with spear guns around me for safety, but the reality was I’m so much faster in my tail than anyone else, especially when they have dive gear on, and to get the best photo, I have to be out in the open ocean away from the dive guys, alone with the sharks! So I take off, I’m swimming right out there in the ocean, they’re all way behind me, and this shark starts coming directly at me. And I had the experience of everything slowing down to that one drawn out moment in time, and my brain was going a million miles an hour and I thought..Okay this is that moment that I was asking about. What am I gonna do? That’s right I have to show it who’s boss. And so I put my arms out wide, and started screaming under the water and swimming directly at it. I was actually yelling, Come on motherf***er! I’ll take you on! But of course it just sounded more like, blup, blup, blup. And the shark just veered off course, changed direction and took off! I scared off a 14-foot great white shark, so whenever I’m faced with scary situations in life, I remember that and think.. I can handle anything!
Swimming with giant Manta rays was nothing short of having an encounter with aliens from another planet! Manta rays are gentle and intelligent creatures and so graceful, unusual and beautiful. They are totally peaceful animals and wont hurt you in anyway. A common misconception is that they have a stinger like sting rays but this is not true. The first time I swam with one I was able to turn upside down underneath and blow bubbles onto its belly, which it seemed to enjoy as it kept coming back for over an hour! I co-created the film ‘Manta’s Last Dance’ with cinematographer Shawn Heinrichs in Hawaii. I was tethered to the bottom of the ocean 25 ft down, at midnight in cold water, holding my breath, with blurry underwater vision, with a massive swell that kept pushing me onto the sharp reef and viper eels wrapping around my ankles but it was amazing because huge Manta Rays were dancing and swooping like giant prehistoric birds all around me. It was totally surreal.”
What has been the most difficult part of the job you do?
“I helped organise and participated in the surfers paddle out into the bloody waters of the Taiji cove where dolphins were being slaughtered. The fishermen there were very angry at being filmed doing these violent acts and began to attack us with long fishing sticks, and push their boat propellors towards our legs. We held a circle for 20 minutes while the remaining live dolphins squealed and spy hopped, looking at us and moving towards us as if they knew we were there to help. We were unable to free any of them as the cove was roped off by fishermen. Eventually we had to leave and all of the dolphins were slaughtered. This goes on for 6 months of every year!!!! While we were able to bring the footage to the rest of the world and bring a great deal of awareness, we are still campaigning to end this useless killing.”
You still call the Northern Rivers home. Do you think you’ll return? –
“I love the Northern Rivers so much! It was the birthplace of my creative life, my mermaid passion becoming reality, and the canvas for my personal expression of who I truly am to be painted into a beautiful lifework. I think once I slow down (not sure if that will happen!) then I will return to the Northern Rivers, to enjoy the uncrowded white beaches, and the magical forests. But for now, my work calls me out into the world where I can connect with the larger world stage.”
What are your feelings on climate change and have you seen changes over your years in the sea? –
“I have personally seen climate crisis happening all over the world. There are gorgeous locations where I used to swim amongst brightly coloured corals, and now they are bleached graveyards of dead sea-life. It’s becoming harder and harder to find those magical creatures to swim with, as they are being overfished, polluted or damaged by our sonar testing and oil spills. I see beaches covered in plastic trash, and fishermen saying there are no more fish left. We have eaten 90% of the large fish in the ocean in the last 50 years alone! It’s a catastrophic state of affairs, and requires immediate action to reverse the damage we have done. The Earth and the Sea have incredible self restoration powers, but we need to stop the pollution and actively helming the process back to a healthy eco-system. The ocean is our life blood. If we mess it up with pollution, overfishing, and killing these incredible species that hold the knowledge and the wisdom of the ocean, it’s only a matter of years before the rest of civilisation crumbles. We can’t survive without the ocean. It’s the womb of the world. We are 70% water. We must realise that we have a completely symbiotic relationship with the ocean.”