Merfolk. Mer-meets. Mer-handler. Mer-vert. It’s not every day that you get to add a range of new words to your vocabulary, but then again, it’s not every day that you get to meet a real-life mermaid. 

Bonnie Harris wears many hats (or crowns, but we’ll get to that later). She’s a scuba instructor, free diver, underwater model, designer and owner of Shellharbour Scuba Centre with her husband, Michael. Oh, and she’s a mermaid.

Bonnie – also known as Mermaid Bonnie – has been mermaiding for seven years. What started out as doing some underwater modelling in bikinis and dresses for her underwater photographer husband turned into something more. 

“I have met up with a lot of underwater models and underwater photographers and I sort of accidentally fell into finding out about mermaids who were doing underwater modelling in mermaid tails and I was like ‘oh my god, that could be me!’" Bonnie said. 

"Why wouldn’t I have a tail on instead of a dress?”

For Bonnie, mermaiding is a form of play.

“For mental health, it's amazing. It got me through Covid playing with all these bright shiny things and something I could do in isolation… It lets you tap into the inner child part that you’ve had to put away when you get your first job and mortgages and bills,” she said.

However, transforming into half fish isn’t as easy as pulling on a tail, although that’s part of the fun. There’s the safety aspects to consider.

"There is a whole danger aspect to it: breath holds and shallow water blackouts, hypothermia and entanglement," Bonnie said. "Everyone drowns in their hair until they learn how to move their head so the wig doesn’t strangle you.”

You also have to act the part and Bonnie said this is a real learning curve. "There’s learning how to open your eyes with the salt water, having water up your nose is another thing. Looking graceful obviously,” she said.

When I first met Bonnie, she was explaining the etiquette of swimming with grey nurse sharks (don’t duck dive down onto them, no erratic movements and absolutely no touching). 

But what do the sharks make of her all glammed up, not only looking like, but swimming like a mermaid?

“I’ve been down there with dark tails. I’ve been down there with bright tails. I’ve been down there with shiny tails and they don’t care. I’ve swum with whale sharks and they didn’t care, with schools of baitfish, manta rays and turtles. 

"Generally speaking, provided that your swimming is not awkward and panicked, you’re just another sea creature.” 

In 2020, due to the prohibitive cost of purchasing costume pieces from overseas, Bonnie and her sister Rochelle (who’s also a mermaid), started The Aussie Mers, creating beautifully elaborate crowns, intricate swim-friendly bras and accessories for other merfolk around the world. 

They also run twice yearly mer-meets, where merfolk and their mer-handlers (no one wants to have to ‘earthworm’ along in their tail to get from place to place!) get together to catch up, do ocean swims with or without the tail and get fully glammed up for land and underwater photoshoots. 

But there’s more to mermaiding than the glamour and fantasy.

“It’s also a way to get you outside and in nature and appreciating the world we have and exercising for yourself. You’re being athletic without even realising you’re being athletic. There’s just multiple benefits that you don’t even realise.”

The next MerMeet is in Shellharbour in February. Find out more here.

You can follow Mermaid Bonnie and The Aussie Mers on Instagram