I was watching a show about supposedly “mythical” creatures that people have actually seen and interacted with, and they mentioned one I hadn’t heard before. The Ningen, a human-like sea creature that lives near Antarctica. There have been many sightings and reports of the Ningen going back to the so-called “discovery of Antarctica.” I say so-called because Antarctica appeared on maps as early as 1519 (without ice!), and there have been so many accounts of strange beings and lights and craft around Antarctica or in the Southern Ocean that to think it was first seen by any human in the early nineteenth century is ridiculous.
Additionally, there have been accounts of strange beings in the sea for millennia. There are weird fish-beings painted on caves by prehistoric people. The Greeks have all sorts of mysterious or mythical creatures that may be based on reality. The Vikings had their own sea-creature. Christopher Columbus, in addition to reporting lights in the water near him, which then came out of the water and flew away, also reported sea-beings. Accounts of mermaids and mermen are numerous in sea-faring history. Pretty much every culture that had a significant presence in the sea or ocean has reports and stories of human-like sea-beings.
The human-like part about the Ningen got me thinking. Could the Ningen (and other sea-creatures) be related to humans in some way? Given the many stories about Ningen and the other creatures there must certainly be some truth in all the sitings. I came across the Aquatic Ape theory, which states that at some point in the distant past, there was a human-like ape that lived in the water. Could the Ningen (and maybe other sea-creatures) be a living member of that species? That despite all of our technology these human-like sea relatives have survived and gone mostly unnoticed? Certainly there are places on earth that are largely unexplored, and there are many such places in the oceans. So it seems logical that these creatures exist.
There are many books and articles on the Aquatic Ape theory. One of the better short explanations of this theory can be found in Frank Joseph’s book “Before Atlantis: Twenty Million Years of Human and Pre-Human Cultures.” The Aquatic Ape theory as a scholarly endeavor dates back to at least the 3rd century BCE, when a Greek scientist named Anaximander first put forth that humans evolved from sea creatures. In the early twentieth century scientists such as Alister Clavering Hardy, Max Westernhöfer and Frederic Wood Jones all advanced ideas about humans evolving from something that lived in the water.
Frank Joseph calls this creature Homo Aquaticus and points to the many similarities between humans and sea mammals. Breath control, little body hair, similarities between human arms and legs and fins of dolphins, even mating habits, are among the similarities he cites. There is also an intriguing documentary about this subject called “Mermaids: The Body Found.” Some have called this documentary a fake or a hoax, but even if it is (and I don’t think so) the theories in this documentary cannot be dismissed in the light of Joseph and other scientists’ arguments. The documentary puts forth a timeline for the Aquatic Apes up to the present day, showing how they have evolved along with humans on land.
This brings up an important question. Are elements of the American government aware of these creatures? Intelligent sea-beings could be quite useful to the US military, although most accounts of these creatures suggest that they are peaceful except when directly threatened. Could the US be exploiting the Ningen and/or other sea-beings for military purposes or sheer profit? Do other governments know of or even exploit these sentient beings? What will it take for this information to be disclosed to the public, given that official evidence of UFOs and alien contact remain highly secret? These creatures have a right to be left in peace and not be exploited simply because we (the humans) can. We should have a higher standard and demand the truth about the Ningen and others so that they may be protected and allowed to live without human interference and exploitation.
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