Are elites eating mermaids? TikTok’s wild new conspiracy theory explained

A particularly strange conspiracy theory that wealthy elites are holding mermaid-eating dinner party events is leaking into TikTok feeds. In March 2025, users began telling bizarre stories about people they claimed to know who worked to catch these fantastical creatures for culinary purposes or about rich friends who were privileged enough to taste the fishy flesh.

Mermaid folklore goes all the way back to ancient Greek myths about sirens, changing from bird people to fish people over time. Stories about sailors and others spotting these creatures continued into the 21st century, recently taking on a new and sinister twist.

‘Sweet like scallops, rich like wagyu’

This month, multiple TikTokers have gone viral with stories about the capture and consumption of mermaids. Users often frame this practice as a clandestine culinary experience reserved for those who can pay huge sums of money for a single meal. Some have reported that diners experience strange, supernatural effects from eating “filet of mermaid.”

On March 11, 2025, user @tiffsghosttalk, who claims to be the original source of these stories (but isn’t), posted a video saying she got an email from someone who attended a mermaid eating dinner party. According to a man she calls Jonah (get it), a ticket to the dinner cost him $50,000 and a limo took him to a secret location where the host wore a spooky mask.

What does mermaid taste like?

“The flavor was exquisite, unlike anything he’d ever known, sweet like scallops, rich like wagyu and with a depth of umami that seemed to awaken something deep in his senses,” Jonah allegedly reported. “It’s as if he was tasting the ocean itself—not just its bounty, but its soul.”

But the delicious taste wasn’t all he got out of that $50,000.

“He then said ‘a warmth spread through my body. My heartbeat slowed, my breath deepened. Around me, the other guests had closed their eyes, their faces soft with pleasure.’”

He then describes a feeling like “a low, resonant hum, a vibration in my bones and my blood.” Jonah went on to say that his mind “was filled with visions of deep blue waters, endless and calm, filled with whispers—not words, but emotions, memories, as if the sea itself had opened to him, revealing its secrets.”

Origins of the mermaid-eating dinner party theory

On March 4, 2025, user @jlee2.07 posted a video telling a long story about a down-on-his-luck man named Landon who got a job on a fishing boat. He had to sign an NDA along with his cousin’s strange new crew, she says. One night, they caught their quarry—a mermaid who spoke a strange language and seemed to beg for her life.

Upon the crew’s return, they transported the creature to a warehouse, but inside it looked like a high-end Hibachi restaurant. The awaiting wealthy men then strapped the mermaid to a gurney and ate it.

@jlee2.07 #greenscreen #mermaid #mythology ♬ original sound – Jlee2.07

This user posted several more videos in the following days telling more stories about Landon and his adventures hunting mermaids. The original gained over 591,000 views, and her second over two million. She has also made quite a few videos telling tales about vampires and quantum jumping, and one about “mysterious stairs.”

Outside of TikTok, one can find older stories about mermaid eating dinner party patrons. On Feb. 14, 2020, Reddit user u/HeadOfSpectre posted a similar story about how he took a job on a boat captained by one Captain Leblanc, and they ended up catching a mermaid to be eaten alive by ravenous elites. This was on the r/nosleep forum, where users post their short and fictional horror stories.

These stories helped user @.sauce.90 gain traction with a video posted on Feb. 26 from his own boat. Filmed at night, the young man runs about the deck, chasing a sound that resembles a woman wailing, or perhaps just a whale. However, he tagged it with “mermaid,” making it clear what he’s implying as he shouts back at the sea: “Where are you?”

@.sauce.90 For those asking to repost the original video. #fyp #sauce90 #mermaid ♬ original sound – Sauce90

Other users later held up this video as evidence that mermaids exist to support the conspiracy theory.

The conspiracy spreads: ‘Elites consume them to remain in control’

As they do, the stories got stranger as they spread across TikTok. On March 10, user @aja_ky claimed that mermaids are the result of “fallen angels” breeding with fish. You know, like they bred with horses to make centaurs. The video has over 3.7 millions views.

This TikToker says that elites eat mermaids in order to gain the abilities of the mythical siren. How else did you think those pop stars got so famous?

“You think they got the power to sing melodies and actually take your mind somewhere else spiritually through a gift that came from God?” she asks.

She lists music as a “gift of the fallen” alongside seduction and makeup, which she appears to be wearing plenty of.

On the same day, user @kvbf02 posted a video insisting that mermaids definitely exist. He knows because he has seen Telegram posts on the dark web with pictures, and we all know that faking images is impossible. And it’s your fault if you didn’t know about this already.

“The only reason that you don’t know about sh*t like this is because you don’t explore areas of the internet outside of just Googling sh*t, okay?” he says.

He claims that fishermen from coasts all over the world have hunted mermaids, for whatever purpose. Also, he has seen and recorded a bunch of cryptids and says he’s got a playlist full of these videos, but he doesn’t.

Just another day on the ol’ TikTok app.

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