A "MERMAID" from Basingstoke is competing in the Miss Ocean World UK to raise awareness for ocean conservation.
Jasmine Seales, who recently moved to Newbury having lived in Brighton Hill for 12 years, will be competing in the Miss Ocean World pageant for Hampshire on Saturday, November 30 in Lincoln.
She is passionate about marine animals and will be raising money for the PADI AWARE Foundation which promotes ocean conservation.
She said: “I really do want to make a difference.
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“Miss Ocean Hampshire is about trying to get people to make small changes so we can all make a big difference.”
Jasmine grew up on the Isle of Wight and remembers seeing marine life in rock pools but has noticed their decline since she was a child.
She said: “The sea has always been a massive part of my life, I was always free diving off cliffs, throwing myself off piers, and swimming in the sea at every opportunity.
“Rock pools were teeming with life and they are just not anymore.”
Miss Ocean World UK isn’t Jasmine’s first pageant; she competed in one five years ago, raising money for Sea Shepard, a conservation society which combats illegal fishing.
Jasmine became a mermaid after attending Mermaid Camp in 2019 and attaining her free dive qualification, which allowed her to safely hold her breath underwater for long periods of time.
She suffers from fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and ADHD so she found it difficult to work a normal job, but it seems like being a professional mermaid is her calling.
She said: “I absolutely love it, it keeps me really fit and creative.
“I’ll never get bored of this job ever.”
As part of being a professional mermaid she does underwater performances, meet and greets and underwater modelling, earning over £100 an hour.
Jasmine is also a special effects artist and makes hyper-realistic mermaid tales out of silicone and latex, which sell for between £1,000 and £5,000.
One of her mermaid tales recently featured on the Channel 4 show Wet Look.
For the pageant’s eco-creative round, which requires participants to make an outfit out of something you’d usually throw away, she has crocheted a two-piece out of 2,000 single-use plastic bags.
Jasmine is excited for the pageant and said the best part of being a mermaid is getting the opportunity to dress up with glitter and shells.
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