The water is cold, but I’m too nervous to shiver. Instead, I propel my arms forward and think graceful thoughts. Flashes of ...

I wish I wish I was a fish,” goes the first line of Martin Weber’s famous poem. Those words may well have been running ...

WEEKI WACHEE -- Barbara Wynns has never stopped thinking about the days she spent in an enormous water tank here, somersaulting and backflipping in a sequined tail fin while sucking air from a ...

WEEKI WACHEE - The world-famous mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs are holding their collective breath. Actually, they do that at times every day when they wiggle into their Lycra fish tails and ...

Since 1947, Weeki Wachee Springs State Park has been luring travelers to its underwater theater, an idea originally conceived by an ex-Navy man, Newton Perry.

He invented an air hose method for breathing underwater and enlisted the help of attractive women to train as mermaids. Perry built a theater submerged 6 feet below the water’s surface, and in ...

Mermaids have long captured the imaginations of humans, first appearing in Greek mythology more than 3,000 years ago. Although humans haven’t necessarily visited Weeki Wachee Springs for that ...

The 74-degree water of Weeki Wachee Springs is crystal clear, like air. Eight of us anxiously await our cue to plunge in, a baptism of sorts that will transform us from mere mortal women to ...

Learning to Breathe The long, winding air hoses located throughout the underwater theater are the Weeki Wachee equivalent of a rock star’s corded microphone: The performance depends on it.

At Weeki Wachee State Park in Florida, mermaid performers are required to swim in 72-degree water in the depths of a natural spring.

WEEKI WACHEE, Fla. — The auditorium at Weeki Wachee Springs sits 16 feet underground. Wooden benches face a thick glass wall, which stays shrouded in blue curtains, resembling ruched swimsuits.