The new special "Mermaids: The Body Found - The Extended Cut" made its premiere tonight on Animal Planet. The program is an extended cut of last year's special "Mermaids: The Body Found" which became a sensation and garnered some of the highest ratings ever for Animal Planet. The network is airing a sequel to the "Mermaids" with further evidence that the creatures exist. But do they?

The special "Mermaids: The Body Found - The Extended Cut"  includes additional footage not aired in last year's special "Mermaids: The Body Found." The show claims that mermaids are not the magical water fairies of fairy lore, but cryptozoological creatures. In, addition, it claims that NOAA Fisheries scientists discovered remains of mermaids, but that the government is engaged in a cover up of the incredible discovery.

During "Mermaids: The New Evidence," footage that supposedly showed a mermaid leaping off a rock and into the water in Kiryat Yam was revealed.  The video shows a mermaid looking up at the cameramen and eerily jumping into the water at an inhuman speed.

Show creator, Charlie Foley, is asked what he thinks of the mythical creatures and if he thinks they actually do exist.

 Foley began by explaining why mermaids enrapture many humans: "I suppose the human psyche is fascinated by mermaids because they're an idealized version of ourselves. The idea of a humanoid creature that lives in the ocean and can breathe underwater. Mermaids belong to a world we know and a world from which we come, but which is now alien to us: That's the world of the oceans, and so we identify with them even as they occupy a place of mystery for us."

Foley said he believes humans are also enchanted with mermaids because they represent the evolutionary past -- where humans might have came from originally. "They are a reflection not only of our psyche but our evolutionary selves," he told the site, "a direction we might have gone, and a direction, if you believe the legends and our conjecture in the film, that one branch of our family tree may very well have gone."

"The mythical creatures have been depicted in art and mythology for thousands of years, and Foley said he believes that is the case because they were actually seen by our ancestors. "The most frequent explanation is that of sun-strained sailors at sea too long who mistook manatees and dugongs for mermaids. But I think you'd have had to have had a lot of grog before you could mistake a manatee for a mermaid."

Do you think Mermaids are real?