Sierra Madre Divers together with gorgeous Mermaid Odessa hosted a Sea Shepherd fundraising event in Alona beach, Panglao, Philippines, and of course Dive Dreams wanted to be part of this fun and important event. Our own handsome Al took the merman challenge and raised $185 USD with the support of our friends and fellow divers. All together Mermaid Odessa, Sierra Madre Divers’ staff, guests and Alona beach by-passers raised total $677 USD for Sea Shepherd. Thank you all so much for supporting this cause, specially “adruckenbrodt“, “Eli+Max”, “citystalkers”, “stevediver”, “mikko.vo”, “manxmkelly” and “Erska & Perska”. 😉

 

This is what Al has to say about the MERMEN challenge:

Being rescued from the ocean by a sexy merman has been the stuff of maritime legend for years. On a the white sand beach of Alona legend became reality as four merman surfaced on their annual migration rout to Vegas. Onlookers grabbed cell phones and cameras and rushed to witness the beaching and were treated to front row views of the four muscular specimen.

Preforming press ups and “duck face” expressions they tried to find the 7 mermaids who arrived on the beach the previous day with gestures and fin slapping. Shortly after they  headed out to deeper waters of the house reef they offered lucky snorkelers the chance to swim alongside for a short time as they dived down in search of the elusive 7 mermaids.

These four had never been spotted so close to the shore, and on closer inspection one of the group was identified as “Bernard”, an ex prisoner of seaworld, could be easily spotted due to his smaller size and limited muscle definition due to years of isolation in small tanks of the seaworld penetentuary.

Another looked at a glance as a rare albino merman, but was later identified as one of the last surviving Scottish merman accounting for its almost white skin and limited navigational abilities.

3rd merman Keith from the waters of the US of A. is rumoured to be a “slow swimmer” but makes up for this by using his tongue! Multi lingual (He is rumoured to speak whale too) he is now the ambassador of the reef after an extended stay on the reef of Alona beach and has been spotted frequently by local fishermen.

So, dear readers, enjoy the pictures!