Mermaid Colouring Pages: Printables and Real Sea Facts

The quickest way to get a good mermaid colouring page is to print one from a publisher you trust. Look for thick outlines and one picture per sheet. Our free pages include a mermaid princess and a sea turtle, and they print on plain A4. Then make the page last longer than five quiet minutes: every mermaid picture is full of real sea animals, and each one comes with a true story you can tell while the crayons are out.

This guide is for parents, carers and teachers. Below you'll find what makes a mermaid page easy for little hands, an honest answer to "are mermaids real?", and one true fact for each sea creature that tends to show up in a mermaid scene.

What makes a good mermaid colouring page

Mermaid pictures range from a single smiling face to busy reef scenes. Match the page to the child.

Age (roughly)	What to look for	Good first picture
2 to 3	One big mermaid, thick lines, almost no background	A mermaid waving, a single shell
4 to 5	A mermaid with one or two sea friends	A mermaid riding a turtle or dolphin
6 to 8	Full scenes with smaller spaces to fill	Shipwrecks, coral gardens, treasure chests

A few things help at any age:

One picture per side. Markers can soak through, so a blank back stops the next page getting spoiled.
A spare sheet underneath. It catches the colour that goes over the edge.
Chunky crayons for the youngest. They are easier to grip than thin pencils and harder to snap.
Print a few copies. A second try at the same mermaid, in completely different colours, is half the fun.

When you search for free pages, you'll find plenty of sites that copy the same pictures. Download from the artist or publisher directly, and skip any page that asks you to install something before you can print.

Are mermaids real? How to answer honestly

Sooner or later, a child colouring a mermaid will ask. The short answer is no, and you can say it kindly.

The US government's ocean agency, NOAA, says plainly that no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. The same page explains that stories of sea people turn up across many cultures and centuries, which is part of why mermaids feel so familiar.

In an article written for children, a University of Newcastle researcher explains that sailors began to see animals such as the manatee and dugong more, often mistaking them for mermaids. The same piece mentions Atargatis, an ancient goddess shown as part woman and part fish.

The most famous mix-up belongs to Christopher Columbus. On 9 January 1493 he wrote that he had seen three mermaids, and that they were not half as beautiful as they are painted. They were almost certainly manatees.

A gentle way to put it to a young child: "Mermaids live in stories, and stories are wonderful. But there's a real sea animal that sailors thought was a mermaid, and it lives right here in Australia."

Meet the real mermaid: the dugong

Dugongs are the closest thing Australia has to a mermaid, and they make a lovely companion page.

According to the Australian Museum, dugongs feed only on seagrass, grow to about 3 metres long, and live in an arc of warm water from Moreton Bay in southern Queensland, across the top of Australia, to Shark Bay in Western Australia.

Colouring idea: draw a long green seagrass meadow along the bottom of the mermaid page, then add a dugong having lunch beside her.

One true fact for every sea friend on the page

Most mermaid scenes are crowded with sea creatures. Pick the ones on your page and share a fact as your child colours each one.

Sea friend	One true fact	Source
Sea turtle	Six of the world's seven kinds of marine turtle are found in Australia.	CSIRO
Seahorse	The dad carries the eggs in a pouch for about three weeks, then gives birth to tiny seahorses.	Australian Museum
Octopus	An octopus has three hearts, and each of its eight arms has its own brain.	NOAA
Sea star	A "starfish" isn't a fish at all. It can regrow a lost arm, and some kinds have up to 40 arms.	NOAA
Clownfish	The fish from Finding Nemo lives along the whole length of the Great Barrier Reef, tucked in a sea anemone.	Australian Museum
Humpback whale	Humpbacks make one of the longest journeys of any mammal, up to 5,000 miles (about 8,000 km).	NOAA Fisheries

Turn the facts into colouring prompts

Each fact can become a small challenge on the page:

Seahorse dad. Colour the seahorse, then draw a round pouch on his tummy with three tiny seahorses peeking out.
Three hearts. Draw three little hearts on the octopus and give each one a different colour.
Lots of arms. Add a sea star with ten arms instead of five, then count them together.
Nemo's house. Draw a wavy anemone for the clownfish to hide in, and colour the three white stripes last.
Turtle count. Draw six turtles swimming past the mermaid, one for each kind that lives in Australian waters.

Ways to use mermaid pages at home and in class

At home

Bedtime wind-down. A single mermaid page and a short story make a calm end to the day. Pick a simple picture so it stays relaxing.
Rainy day ocean. Colour several sea creatures, cut them out, and stick them on a big sheet painted blue.
Beach trip follow-up. After a day at the beach, colour the creatures you might have seen and talk about which ones live near you.

In the classroom

Real or story? Sort cut-out pictures into two piles: mermaids, dragons and unicorns in one, dugongs, turtles and seahorses in the other.
Map it. Mark Moreton Bay and Shark Bay on a map of Australia and colour the dugong's home in between.
Stories from around the world. Use the NOAA and The Conversation pieces above as a starting point for a talk about how many cultures tell stories of sea people.

Mermaid books for when one page isn't enough

If your child wants more than one page, our Mermaid Coloring Book for Kids Ages 4-8 has fifty mermaid scenes, no two the same, including riding dolphins, exploring shipwrecks and collecting shells. For younger children, the Unicorn Coloring Book for ages 2 to 6 mixes mermaids in with unicorns, fairies and baby dragons, all drawn big and bold. You'll find both on our books page.

Liked the fact-for-every-animal idea? Our Australian animals colouring pages do the same for koalas, wombats and friends.

Get your free mermaid page

Start with the mermaid princess and sea turtle in our free set of five pages. They arrive as a PDF straight away, print on plain A4, and you can print as many copies as you like. Get the free pages here, then pick a sea friend from the table above to talk about while you colour.

Questions and answers

Where can I get free mermaid colouring pages?

SparkleBay Books has a free set of five printable pages, including a mermaid princess and a sea turtle, as a PDF you can print on A4 or letter paper as many times as you like.

Are mermaids real?

No. NOAA says no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Mermaids are characters from stories told in many cultures, and sailors may have mistaken real animals like dugongs and manatees for them.

What animal is called the real mermaid?

Dugongs and their cousins the manatees. Sailors who saw them surface from a distance are thought to have mistaken them for mermaids, and dugongs live in warm Australian waters from Moreton Bay to Shark Bay.

What age are mermaid colouring pages good for?

Pages with big shapes and thick outlines suit children from about two, while detailed scenes with shells, fish and shipwrecks suit children of about four to eight.

How do I stop markers bleeding through a colouring page?

Print one picture per sheet and slip a spare sheet of paper underneath while your child colours.

Sources

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