In the wake of the 2004 tsunami , pictures of Fiji `` mermaids '' circulated on the Internet as supposed examples of items that had washed up amid the devastation , though they were no more real than Barnum 's exhibit .
In the wake of the 2004 tsunami , pictures of Fiji `` mermaids '' came up on the Internet as examples of items that had washed up onto the beach , though they were no more real than Barnum 's exhibit .