Ghanaian scientists are sure they have found a clue to the mystery mermaid called "mami water" which has been at the centre of folk tales in many riverside communities in West Africa.

The scientists from the Institute of Aquatic Biology of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Wildlife Department told the Ghana News Agency that mami water, the sea goddess reputed to be a source of absolute beauty and money could be the West African Manatee, a large aquatic herbivorous mammal.

"When spotted in night, its scaly body against the moonlight creates the impression of half fish and half woman," adding that the female manatee has two breasts with teats and dwells in tropical waters, whether fresh or saline.

Dr. Mamaa Entsua-Mensah a research fellow of the Institute said the female Manatee tend to look like women when they come out to inhale some fresh air at night.

"Because they are mammals, they have lungs and hence the need for them to take in air through their lungs." Dr. Entsua-Mensah who made her research paper available to GNA said "because of the breast with teats, when people sight the mammals jumping out of the sea in the night to take in long deep breath of air, they are perceived as half woman, half fish." Dr Entsua-Mensah said their total length often ranges from two to four metres and can weigh up to 450 kilograms.

"They have very small eyes, no external ears, short neck with forelimbs modified as fins, no hind limbs and a rounded fin in place of a tail." She said studies conducted in Ghana by the Institute and the Wildlife

Department indicates that the manatee could be found in the Abbey lagoon and the Volta estuary. "They are also found in the rivers such as Dayi, Asukawkaw, Obusum, Sene and Oti within the Volta Lake.

"The mammals are spotted mainly in the night because they rest during the day and feeds mainly at night." Dr Entsua-Mensah said it is difficult to evaluate the magnitude of manatee mortality through incidental or intentional catches because of inadequate information from the fishermen.

The fishermen consider mami water as sacred that cannot be talked about openly except after some rituals, according to enquiries made by the GNA in Accra. Among fishermen in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, mami-water is considered a powerful woman who is very generous and very jealous.

Nigerian folk stories are told about persons whose fortunes have changed dramatically when they married mammy water, the mermaid but lost everything when they became unfaithful to her. "It is clear that the art of catching manatees is a very specialised one handed down from father to son and only certain families have the 'juju' to hunt the mammal", she said.

Dr. Entsua-Mensah said the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) based in Geneva has listed the West African Manatee as vulnerable.

"Studies on the Manatee in Guyana have shown that they breed poorly in confined areas and have a slow rate of reproduction even in the wild. It usually gives birth to one at a time - at most two," Dr. Entsua-Mensah said.

She said these mammals which are harmless to man, can be used as weed control agents because of their feeding habits.

"They feed mainly on aquatic plants and consume as much as 20 per cent of their weight a day." Dr. Entsua-Mensah said that because of the mammals long gestation period and slow reproduction rate a substantial time is needed to do basic research for successful manatee husbandry.

"Unfortunately a realistic appraisal of the potential of manatee for general aquatic weed control in Ghana indicates that it would take many years to establish enough numbers."

She said as manatee research promises to yield certain practical consequences, there is an urgent need to acquire scientific information on manatee biology, with particular emphasis on its mode of reproduction, anatomy, behaviour, ecology and physiology.

Dr. Entsua-Mensah called on the police, Chiefs and the public to be involved in the manatee conservation as a step in protecting Ghana's bio-diversity especially in areas where the numbers of the mammals have gone down.