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Cast your mind back to the heyday of Marvel and DC comics, where the penultimate page was awash with tiny commercials for X Ray specs and spy kits (not forgetting those full page Twinky ads). One particular page stood out like an Orange Man at the Vatican, an image of a crowned Mer family. Adding to my confusion was the title of the product - Sea Monkeys. The aquatic humans shown in the ad in no way resembled monkeys - what the hell was going on? What were these things. Somehow the idea of receiving a pet through the post chilled me to the bone - could these things be truly alive?
Some of my questions were resolved when a friend recently brought some home from the States. Unlike other pets, no quarentine was require, as these beasts were still residing in their packet. "Just add water," the shiny parcel proclaimed "Life absolutely garenteed". Needless to say I still felt queasy at the prospect of a pot noodle pet. However, this did not dampen our Prometuos intrigue, so we duely poured water into the transpatent plastic "palace" and sat back - our seveth day if you like.
Low and behold just a few hours later life was indeed stirring from the primeveal ooze, albet life in its most basic form. What emerged was a type of lavea, resembeling something you may find at the bottom of a bucket full of stagnent water. A teeming, writhing swarm of parasitical creatures, in no way resembeling the Mer-people of the box, or even the mokeys of the title. Just squirming things you saw on television programmes about tropical disease.
"Invented" by one Harold Von Braun in 1957, Sea Monkeys are in fact a form of Brine shrimp, Artemia Saline to be exact.These guys can live without water for years, either in egg form or by forming a protective cyst where they can lie dormant. Concentrating on this angle, Von Braun first dubbed his "creations" "Instant life", but they only became succesful when marketed by the sinister sounding Transcience corperation in the pages of the aforementioned comic books. Of course, a series of accessories have been designed for said Shrimp, including games (Speedway Challenge), even jewlery (a very dodgy liquid filled pendant to take you pets anyplace). Ultimately its amazing just how long Sea Monkeys have been around. Not simply a sixies fad, they show how mans desire to control life never dies out. Just like the monkeys themselves.
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