A viral video shot at the Mekong Underwater World in Yunnan, China, shows a young mermaid performer getting attacked by a giant aquarium fish during a live show.
A popular tourist attraction in Xishuangbanna, China’s Yunnan Province, recently attracted a lot of criticism for allegedly trying to cover up an incident involving a mermaid performer and a giant fish that attacked her during a live performance. Halfway through “The Mermaid Show”, an underwater ballet performance, the young Russian woman known only as Masha gets her head swallowed by a huge sturgeon that had crept up behind her. Luckily, the 22-year-old woman maintains her composure and manages to swim to the surface and get help. Although the show was reportedly stopped for at least an hour and a half, management at Mekong Underwater World allegedly offered the dancer a meager compensation for “moral damages” and specifically asked her not to talk about the incident.
Unfortunately for the popular Xishuangbanna tourist attraction, at least one of the visitors present at the time of the incident filmed the whole thing and released the footage on social media where it quickly went viral. Although early reports described the fish as a species of shark, animal experts quickly clarified that the giant fish was actually a sturgeon, a toothless fish that rarely attacks humans.
Following the online backlash that followed after the video went viral, Mekong Underwater World released a statement claiming that the performer hadn’t been injured and that the aquarium was operating according to the usual schedule. However, Misha posted at least one photo that shows bruising on her face, and Russian media reported that the human mermaid had suffered injuries to her face, head and neck. She was reportedly offered $100 as compensation for the incident.
