My name is Joe Carpenter. I'm a photographer, and I make a living selling my pictures to various magazines. I live in Brisbane, Australia, so naturally, my main hunting ground is the crown jewel of the east coast—the Great Barrier Reef. My brother Nick and I share a dive boat, a couple of scuba sets, and an underwater camera rig. When we dive, Nick always acts as my spotter—someone’s got to look out for sharks while I’m taking photos, after all—while my girlfriend, Kelly, and his wife, Tori, stay topside on board. In June, right at the start of winter, we decided to head down to the Spencer Gulf on the southern coast. There's a wonderful little spot there called False Bay, where giant Australian cuttlefish gather during their mating season. These cephalopods breed only once in their lifetime, but they do it with such spectacular pomp and flair that it would be a crime not to capture it on film. We arrived at dusk, dropping anchor close to the shore and just a bit away from a pair of small yachts that were likely there for the exact same reason. Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't doing us any favors; a storm was brewing for the following evening, so we couldn't afford to waste any time. Early the next morning, Nick and I suited up in our wetsuits—the water had already turned pretty chilly—strapped on our gear, and dove in. The second we sank, I knew it was a brilliant idea. The water was absolutely thick with cuttlefish. Usually, these creatures are solitary, but here there were probably thousands of them. If you’ve never seen a cuttlefish, they're relatives of the octopus that normally live in rock crevices and reefs, mastering the art of camouflage. Right now, though, the males had completely forgotten their usual protective coloring. In a frantic bid to charm the females, they were flaunting fantastic, luminescent neon patterns that shifted with incredible speed. It was a dazzling, living kaleidoscope! I was firing off shots left and right, turning from side to side. Nick completely forgot his safety duties, constantly gesturing toward the most stunning specimens. I was totally locked into framing a perfect shot when he yanked my fin so hard it nearly flew off my foot. I whirled around, looking where my brother was frantically pointing. At first, I couldn't make out what the fuss was about, but then I nearly dropped my camera. Right there, floating in the middle of the swirling swarm of cuttlefish, was something shaped like a human silhouette. As it glided closer, we saw her clear as day... a girl. Or a woman, it didn't matter. She moved effortlessly through the water column, bending and twisting with the grace of a fish as she played with the cephalopods. We were down at a considerable depth, yet she had no scuba gear whatsoever. How on earth could she hold her breath for this long? Or was she... a mermaid? I couldn't see a fish tail, but I noticed her skin was dappled with spots and stripes that shifted colors in perfect sync with the cuttlefish. The intricate design covered her entirely, from her toes to her hair, including her face. Even her hair, cascading down her back, rippled with pulsing, colorful patterns. Spellbound, I stared at the impossible creature, unable to look away. The girl turned to face us, revealing massive, dark eyes. She paused, studying us, tilting her head from side to side like a curious bird. Snapping out of my trance, I slowly began to raise my camera to capture this miracle. Suddenly, she bolted, vanishing behind a reef outcrop in the blink of an eye. The shutter clicked a second too late. Nick and I rushed after her, but no matter how hard we searched, the mysterious being had vanished without a trace. Eventually, Nick signaled that we were running low on oxygen and it was time to ascend to the surface. I had never felt such bitter disappointment in my entire life. I had been on the verge of a historic discovery—I could have documented a real mermaid. It would have been a global sensation, but she had slipped right through my fingers. Kelly and Tori grew genuinely worried when they saw our miserable faces. I set the camera down on the gear crate and began stripping off my harness. Nick, gesturing wildly, was already spilling everything we'd seen: “Her whole face was covered in these pulsing stripes and spots, just like a cuttlefish! Just flashing non-stop! And her eyes were huge, taking up half her face. Pitch-black. Right, Joe?” He slapped my back just as I was standing on one leg, struggling out of my wetsuit. The shove was way too hard. Miraculously managing not to crash onto the deck, I slammed sideways into the equipment crate, my elbow clipping the camera. A loud splash over the side, followed by Kelly's startled gasp, confirmed the worst: I had just lost every single shot I'd taken. “Damn it, Nick! What the hell did you do?” I snapped at my brother. “How are we supposed to get it back now?” “We can dive back down, scour the bottom...” “Scour what, Nick? We're over a coral reef and our tanks are empty. By the time we boat back to get them refilled, we’ll never pin down this exact spot again.” I was ready to wring his neck, but Tori's shout cut me short: “Look!” We spun around and saw a head pop up just over the lower transom of our boat. My legs nearly gave out underneath me. It was the mermaid. The spots on her face had faded, remaining visible only near her temples, cheekbones, and chin. She had small, elongated ears pressed flat against her skull. What we had mistaken for hair underwater turned out to be a sort of fin—a wide, translucent cape cascading over her shoulders. Her pale face featured a slender nose with slit-like nostrils, and a wide mouth with lips that barely differed in tone from the rest of her skin. And those enormous eyes... They were indeed incredibly dark, yet they seemed to glow from within. She had perfectly human hands with long, elegant fingers, tipped with sharp little claws and webbing. But the most stunning thing of all—she was holding my camera! Instinctively, I reached out my hand toward her. The mermaid pressed a finger to her lips, swept her eyes over all of us with a watchful gaze, smiled, and slipped back into the deep. As we watched the water close over her head, we were all thinking the exact same thing: we would never look for this enigmatic creature or her kind again. Because humans, as always, ruin everything.