You Gotta Define Your Terms

In Spy Island, Nora Freud's half-sister Connie works for the Marine Institute of Cryptozoology, and has an associate's degree in cryptozoology. She shows up because there's supposed to be something going on with the mermaids there.

But if mermaids are a widely acknowledged enough creature that you can send people to investigate their attacks, that their teeth can be identified and sold, that there are fundraisers to protect them, should they still qualify as a cryptid? At that point, aren't they just wildlife? I kind of figured the whole point of studying cryptids was to get them to the point they're recognized as an actual, existing animal.

I did a little looking around online, and there seem to be a lot of definitions for cryptids. One was any creature that left behind circumstantial or testimonial evidence, but nothing physical. Well, there are mermaid teeth, I'm assuming documented sightings and observations if they know what seasons mermaids are most active. The same person, Bernard Heuvelmans, argued it should also be unexpected or different in some way, or 'emotionally upsetting.' That's vague, but could apply. 

Though by that logic, a platypus should be a cryptid.

I don't think the definition about creatures that were assumed extinct works, because I don't think that was ever the case for mermaids. Ditto for finding individuals well outside their normal range. Doubt you had sailors yelling about seeing a mermaid, and one of the old-timers scoffs and tells them there are no mermaids south of the Tropic of Cancer.

A different person, Chad Arment, had different types, one of which was animals that bear no resemblance to any known species past or present. Which could apply, but the mermaids as presented in Spy Island seem to have traits of different animals that exist. Tail similar to dolphins, scales like a fish, upper body similar in shape and symmetry to primates. So if they're a cryptid then, again, so is a a platypus.

And that designation really depends on how complete your fossil record is. You don't have any record of similar species until you do. 

The only conclusion I can draw is we're meant to realize Connie is using this mermaid thing as a smokescreen for something else, because obviously mermaids aren't cryptids.

Now I need to spend some time looking up what we know on the ancestral history of the platypus.