Over the weekend, the New York Times took a look inside the very non-glamourous life of "real" mermaids:
Mermaids work for roughly minimum wage and their duties include cleaning the performance tank, where they have to swim without coming into contact with an alligator. The occupational hazards make for close friendships, and the mermaids like to play pranks, like filling the park’s fountain with soap or dumping neon dye in the shower heads.
And that's about as sexy as it gets, folks.
New York Times: Mermaids Past and Present Keep Things Real