Across the globe, whispers of mermaid tales echo through cultures, enchanting and mysterious. Yet, few stories delve into the ancient depths, reaching back to the time before the great flood of Noah. Join me on an extraordinary journey into the heart of the Moana, where we'll explore the Legends of Sina Tulutulu i Moana, the Queen of Mermaids. Her story is not a recent invention but one woven into the very fabric of the enchanted, even haunted, Polynesian islands that have known of her and her sister mermaids for centuries, passed down through Samoan generations who understand the ocean's captivating secrets.
Mariana Trench: O le Moana
In Samoan culture, the deepest blue hue of the South Pacific Ocean is called "Moana," while the same location is known as the Mariana Trench to outsiders.
“The crescent-shaped Mariana Trench (part of the Trench Unit) is the "Grand Canyon" of the ocean (actually 120 times larger) and includes some of the deepest known areas on Earth. Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench and the greater ocean, is located at a depth of about 36,000 feet (around 11,000 meters) — about 7,000 feet deeper than Mount Everest is tall.”
Moana - ‘Underneath’ the ocean floor
Far below the sun-drenched surface, where merchant vessels and sailors travel atop the restless waves of the South Pacific, lies a realm hidden from human eyes: O le Moana (Deep Blue Waters) It is the ancestral home of mermaids, beings woven into the very fabric of maritime lore, their history etched in the coral castles and shimmering kelp forests that define their underwater dominion.