One praise for this snippet of a story are the mermaids, unlike similar stories, these were done well. It is however nestled within a tale that provides no believability and enhances the authors either lack of research or care for this story. 
 Cheap and sloppily thrown together. This being a short story I wasn't expecting depth or really anything extraordinary going in. I do expect you to think it through and leave the b-movie mentality out of it. If I was looking for that my brain would be rotting to the tv, not reading.