I’m not sure (I’m brand-new 
- as a poster, not as a reader and great admirer of this place. Okay, enough sucking up.) , but I think this question should go here, and not in Cafe Society. If not, sorry!
I’ve been searching for this short story that I read in a book that was a collection of them. I read it when I was in the 5th grade- although it definitely was not a children’s story in any way- so I can’t remember for sure if it was a collection of stories by the same author, or a collection of science-fiction-y short stories, or who the author was or anything that might be at all helpful. What I do remember is that it’s a fairly lengthy short story about a diver on some kind of scientific submarine mission who discovers a mermaid (and, eventually, some mer…men? I remember the writer refers to them as “bulls” in the story- but they’re clearly men from the waist up and fish from the waist down, although somehow they can mate, because that’s what’s going on when the diver first sees them.).
It’s your typical mermaid-and-diver story: Mermaid meets and bewitches diver without ever actually speaking. Diver falls in love with mermaid. Something goes horribly wrong (again, I don’t remember exactly what- sorry) and, the last time the diver goes out on a dive, he ends up getting hauled back into the sub by the rest of the crew, barely alive. I don’t remember whether he dies in the end, or just almost does, but it ends with the other members of the crew having to explain to some kind of oversight board what happened to their colleague.
Or something. My memory’s hazy, and I know that’s not a great description, but I’ve been searching for the title/author/where I can find a copy of this piece for years now, both via the internet (Google search, going through every single freakin’ piece of literature on Google books that has the word “mermaid” in it, etc.) and asking all the smart, well-read people I know if they’ve read it. None of them have. Help me, SDMB, you’re my only hope.
Thanks!
~S