Bare-Breasted Mermaid Lures in Fjord

(OSLO) — A bare-breasted blonde mermaid perched atop a rock is making tourists gape in disbelief along a Norwegian fjord.

“One man once jumped off a boat and swam over to me,” Line Oexnevad, 37 and mother of two children, told Reuters Tuesday of her unorthodox job as a professional siren. “Most people just look and cheer.”

Oexnevad, naked except for a long blonde wig and a costume fish-tail, said she has sat five times on a rock along the Lyse fjord in West Norway in the past three summers, hired as a surprise attraction for tourist boat trips and parties.

“The last time it was a bit cold,” she said.

“The mermaid in Copenhagen and me are the only mermaids I know of,” she said. The “Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen is a statue inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.

Oexnevad, who also works at a hospital in nearby Stavanger, said she was no good at singing — in legend, sirens sang to lure sailors. “Maybe next time I’ll take along a cassette player,” she said.