MerAdria: Where Mermaids and Ocean Conservation Unite
Dive into our exclusive interview with the founders of MerAdria, an eco-conscious mermaid retreat based in Croatia's stunning Adriatic Sea. Discover how mermaiding and ocean conservation come together, meet the merfolk behind this unique event, and learn how you can get involved in making a positive impact on the seas—all while enjoying unforgettable mermaid experiences!
Corinna Schwozer
10/3/20246 min read
This August, MerMapp was proud to be a sponsor of MerAdria's 2024 eco-retreat!
We'll be diving deep into the world of MerAdria through an exclusive interview with the merfolk behind it all!
So let's dive right in! What initially sparked the idea for MerAdria?
What sparked the idea for this year's one-of-a-kind mermaid eco-retreat?
First of all, thank you so much MerMapp for supporting us this year and recognizing our eco-environmental (or “eco-envi” how we call them) efforts, and especially for designing the cutest pins for our marine turtle adoption segment of the MA24 event! We salute your efforts for the mermaid community, bringing all the valuable and easily-accessible tools and courses for everyone in one designated place!
Let's start from the very beginnings... MerAdria was conceived in 2021 in the heat of the pandemic by SireNea, as an idea to marry her volunteer endeavors of 15+ years, especially the eco-envi activities, with her favourite hobby of mermaiding - that was non-existent in her country. Being Croatia's first & only mermaid since 2012, it was the ideal opportunity to implement merfolk experience gathered during her model/acting career in California, USA (as human Nea Dune) to kick-off a merfolk community in the Balkan region, with Croatia and its stunning Adriatic sea as its base. She created a separate IG account @croatiansiren and instantly connected with two mermaids in neighboring Slovenia - tattoo artist Tamy and siren singer Nathuoriel - clicking as friends instantly and voila, the Balkan pod was formed! Summer of 2022 their first mer-swim on Krk island was captured by Nea's longtime collaborator Photobilly, and Nathuoriel suggested another Slovenian mermaid Arabella to bring on board, who she's been assisting at the time for her mermaid academy - and we welcomed her with open fins to the team! Tamy designed our MerAdria logo and banners, and you can hear Nathuoriel's haunting siren voice in many of our videos and social media posts.
After seeing what pure willpower and love for the sea can do, two mermaids of the team, Arabella and SireNea, decided to join forces this year for a week-long eco-retreat 2024, and Arabella brought her human SO as mermaid security and assistant.
Summer 2023 was in the sign of a fully volunteer event "Mer-Cation" on island Lošinj, where MerAdria team was joined by Nea's tailmaker and MA team member, Disney Italia's MerAlex, bringing together 11 merfolk and enjoying an eco-envi charged event full of mermaiding and island beaches exploration with special attention to local insular culture, combining freedive practice with cleanups and adoptions of native dolphins through Croatian sanctuary for injured marine animals "Blue World Institute".
As conservation is the main component of MerAdria alongside mermaiding, it was a simple decision to take a leap and bring mermaid world's biggest names to this little corner of the world this year - Hannah Fraser and Brett Stanley.
Nea met up with Hannah in Los Angeles earlier that year to chat all things MerAdria, and met Brett in the winter when they shot together for a magical underwater music video (check out Kasbo's "I'm in Trouble" with fabulous mermaids and underwater models).
Bringing them to Croatia for MerAdria was the ideal opportunity to learn from their immense experience, create impactful content and a ghost-net eco-campaign currently in post-production.
And thanks to Hannah's masterclass, Croatia now has its first NAUI Mermaid instructor, SireNea's longtime collaborator and ghost-net warrior Matko Pojatina, who are both founding members of Adriatic Guardian association.
MerAdria gives back to the sea and puts conservation front and center, while promoting mermaiding as an inclusive activity that nurtures the body and mind - with an emphasis that every body is a mermaid body.
We hope to inspire others to do the same with conservation being an integral part of mermaid events and retreats. Our seas and oceans need our help more and more exponentially - as the sea temperatures are rising each summer, so does the amount of pollution, in the form of both trash and discarded fishing gear.
MerAdria marries the classic mermaiding activities and content creation with ocean activism to bring awareness and instigate change through our whimsical world of mermaids, a fantasy that lives in millions of minds worldwide since childhood.
For this year's eco-retreat we organized a Mer-Market event, where we offered a unique opportunity on one of the most popular Croatian islands Vis, bursting with tourists from all over the world, to meet mermaids, take photos with us, talk to us and learn about protecting our Adriatic sea and threats oceans face, and adopt an endangered loggerhead turtle on the spot, directly benefiting the marine adoptions program by WWF Adria.
Each year MerAdria focuses on a different ocean & sea issue regarding pollution, and benefits a different species of marine animals who are facing extinction:
2023 was in the sign of bottlenose dolphins and discarded trash during high tourist season, and 2024 was in the sign of loggerhead turtles and ghost nets.
2025 will be in the sign of angelsharks - a small docile species that have recently been discovered again in the Adriatic sea, back after years of being considered extinct!
Mermaid conventions are a fantastic way to celebrate our love for the ocean and all things fantastical. What unique experiences or activities sets MerAdria apart from other mermaid gatherings?
What kind of attendee will enjoy MerAdria conventions the most? Are there normally different experiences for beginner mermaids versus seasoned veterans?
Anyone who carries a love for the waters of the world and its inhabitants, cares about contributing to a cause while nourishing their body and soul through the magical world of mermaiding, connecting with like-minded folks and love for the sea!
MerAdria welcomes every human who wishes to spend a piece of their summer with merfolk kin, experienced or newbie, swimming in gorgeous crystal waters of the Adriatic Sea while creating unique content, helping spread awareness about sea pollution and protecting marine life, and directly contributing through marine life adoptions and cleanups.
Inclusivity is extremely important to us, and we firmly believe every body is a mermaid body - we are all the same under water in terms of shapes, sizes, ages, races, cultures, religions, dis/abilities, identifications or water experiences!
Can you elaborate on the kind of programming attendees can expect?
MerAdria has events every year on a different Croatian Island, of different scope and with different headliners - and we had returning international attendees in the short time we existed.
As such, every year is a different experience with the same goal - benefitting the Adriatic sea, and adopting native endangered marine species, and all events are of 100% volunteer nature for the organizing team thus far.
Besides adoptions, we enjoy daily explorations of the chosen island and mermaiding, creating content in the most beautiful beach and sea locations, supported by valuable conservation classes.
In 2023 on our "Mer-Cation" on Lošinj island, we received a private lecture at the Blue World Institute on dolphin conservation, followed by a stunning sunset ride on a historic local lugger boat Nerezinac.
In 2024 on our "Eco-Retreat" on Vis island, Hannah Mermaid taught a special version of her masterclass tailored for MerAdria, "Servant of the Sea - Conservation through Mermaiding", and Brett Stanley was our headliner photo- and videographer.
Each of our official events provides attendees with a generous giftbag - from our MA23 gift sponsors we'd love to mention Mermaids Wolfsburg leggings, makeup palettes by Vampyre Cosmetics and Ink Deluxe tattoo giftcards; our MA24 gift sponsors included various Croatian gifts (Tshirts, licitar hearts, lavender baggies etc) by National Tourist Bureau, Artio print MA totes and MA stickers, MerMapp x MA pins and Divine.si mermaid hair turbans.
Additionally, for MA24 we had an exciting giveaway lottery, where Hannah drew lucky winners for 3 awards: a silicone tail by MerAlex and two dragonskin pieces by Canadian brand Cyntault Creations (custom bra top, and bracers)!
We have our chat groups to share experiences, photos, videos, and foster connection beyond the event just attended; just wrapped a Zoom video call where we got to chat about mermaid archetypes with our MA24 guest speaker and pod-member Taja Divine.
Sustainability is a core value for many merfolk. How does MerAdria incorporate eco-conscious practices into the event?
The main pillars of MerAdria are meliorism, 3R, sustainability and altruism, and our logline "Mermaids for the Adriatic 🔱 Sirene za Jadran".
Those are encouraged and enforced whenever and wherever humanly possible - from the "small" daily things like avoiding single-use-plastic in favor of reusables (especially water bottles and bags), repurposing, being mindful of water and electricity wasteful usage to carbon footprint (ground transpo and flights), beach and underwater cleanups.
As MerAdria's core is to contribute to regional and local development in an eco-manner, one of our objectives, set in motion this year, is using the ghost-nets extracted from our Adriatic sea for repurposing into products, in collaboration with Adriatic Guardian association and local divers.
International merfolk has been coming to Croatia for many years to indulge in our beautiful crystal sea and beaches over summer months.
One of MerAdria's goals is to foster a welcoming community that enriches the experience of those who visit Croatia (once in a lifetime for some) with mermaiding, benefits the local ecosystem and supports local people and businesses.
If you wish to make a positive impact on our environment through mermaiding, while exploring beautiful sea locations and meeting fun like-minded folks from around the world, this is the right space for you!
Finally, MerAdria team, what message do you have for our MerMapp community considering attending your events?
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