Mid to late 21th century the results of a very unusual covert research, one most governments were even unaware of in fact as the chief researcher themself funded the equipment and staff, was unveiled to much of the general public.
What find you may ask? This researcher had perfected two different means of creating merfolk. real flesh, blood and scales merfolk. and not for simply their own pleasure for they opened the find not to military or dictatorships... no this find was more entertainment and eye catching to places also often signed up to the programs focused on restoring endangered species... it was opened mainly to Aquariums.
Now why were there two different versions. so the aquariums had options when invoking their access as both sides had pros and cons associated with them both morally and legally.
The first was transformation of humans, those volunteering of course and as one might expect often females would sign up... aside from the requirements of equipment those undergoing need to sign forms detailing how long they were expecting to undergo the change alongside the usual emergency contacts.
the cons of course were the challenges of staying to the contracts on both sides, see aside from the typical holdout by the aquarium owners to rake in the cash it was also reported well a number of transformed would resist being reverted, another issue being the occasions where those underage try and bypass an age restriction that was focused on due to the length the transformation takes and the dangers of rapid switching.
the other method, actually more costly, was artificial in nature... cloning many call it in basics but in practice it involved creating a mermaid or merman from scratch, no human past and when finished usually having the IQ and mentally of new borns or peaceful domestic new pets.
Aside from the costs being bigger the merfolk from the cloning-like courses had a extra limited lifespan, averaging about 2-5 years before their bodies dissolve.
regardless in the short time since the unveiling the inclusion of merfolk in the aquariums has boosted the average attending of visitors, both new and content regulars, which in turn boost the income which besides the staff wages as stated helps keep the funding to the endangered species breeding programs.
that is not to say it was all joy and love in the original research and tests. stories persist of the teams going to prisons in places still running the death penalty to collect prisoners on their lists at test subjects, a bonus in the eyes of the prison staff really as this saved them the costs of the equipment to perform the deeds while some secretive research group benefits in having a good deal of subjects whose deaths helped in assuring the end results were never fatal.
Now who is to undergo the process now and what is the start of their story: