MILWAUKEE — There’s a real-life mermaid in Milwaukee making a real difference.
Meet Echo, a professional mermaid who loves swimming and performing. Their character's name is Mermaid Echo. They describe their mermaid persona as ditzy, bubbly, and chaotic good, almost like a Robin Hood or Jack Sparrow.
However, Echo’s love for the water stretches beyond their tail. Echo is getting their master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee's School of Fresh Water Sciences. Mermaid Echo's mission is to educate America's younger generation about the ongoing climate crisis and its effects on our freshwater ecosystems like Lake Michigan.
“How can I make a child feel empowered that they can make a difference," Echo said.
To do this, they perform at Discovery World on weekends throughout the Summer. They also do private events. Mermaid Echo's lessons have a real impact too.
"I hear back from parents all the time saying my kid met you five years ago and now she doesn’t let me bring plastic bags home from Target," they said.
Echo knows that climate change can be a challenging concept for children to understand. That's why they deliver it in an age-appropriate way. Normally, there will be a narrator explaining the effects of climate change on our Great Lakes ecosystem while Mermaid Echo swims inside the Discovery World aquarium.
“What’s a way we can make it fun and light and bubbly and whimsical and playful? Well, a mermaid is a perfect solution for that.”
Echo believes that it's up to future generations to take the reigns on climate change to protect places like Lake Michigan.
"Getting kids to care about freshwater just as much if not more as we care about ocean and marine environments," they said.
Echo became Mermaid Echo in the mid-2010s. They had ankle replacement surgery due to a sports-related injury. To rehab it, they did mono-fin swimming which can help strengthen the weaker ankle. That's when they found out about mermaid tails and the entire mermaid community. Then in 2016, they started a business as an entertainer and educator.
Echo does this part-time. Their full-time job is with a non-profit that focuses on restoring coastlines and preventing coastal erosion along freshwater lakes like Lake Michigan.
"So freshwater conservation, conservation education in freshwater environments is the most important thing we should be focusing on in the world of conservation. I think," they said.
Lake Michigan is our backyard. Our actions can make an immediate impact to preserve this ecosystem and save freshwater mermaids like Echo.
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