Ever since Mermaid Kat was a young girl, she cared for nature, the environment and animals. Even though her parents forbade Kat to go into the forest alone, she went in there almost every day. She climbed trees, built gang-huts and searched for injured animals that needed her help. Kat dreamed about a life like a native Indian in harmony with nature. She was still young, but she realised that humans were on track to destroy our beautiful planet. Tons of garbage in the woods and countless trees that were cut down, broke her heart.

Kat was always surrounded by animals that she rescued. She built up a connection with them and enjoyed their company more than the company of most humans. Kat realised how terrible animals get treated and killed at meat farms, which was against her ethical believes. Therefore, she decided to follow a vegetarian diet and later converted to a plant based vegan diet.

When Kat got older she started to be more active as an environmentalist. She got involved in bigger projects to save animals and our environment. In 2006 she was one of the founders of the German shark saving organisation “SharkChance”.

After Kat turned into a mermaid, she started using her mermaid personality to create awareness for our oceans. To fight against marine parks with captive dolphins, which cause the bloody slaughter of around 20,000 dolphins yearly during the selection process, Kat swam with wild dolphins in the Red Sea to show the beautiful interaction between a mermaid and wild dolphins in their natural habitats. Visiting dolphins in captivity rips dolphin families apart, causes pain, illnesses and even suicide of these beautiful water mammals. If you want to see dolphins, visit them in their natural habitats or watch documentaries about these magnificent creatures. For more information please watch documentaries like “The Cove” and “Blackfish”.

Kat swam in the shark tank of “Underwater World Pattaya” in Thailand to support the campaign “Swim for Sharks”. She also performed at “Aquaria KLCC” in Kuala Lumpur to support the anti shark finning campaign “Save our Fins”. In April 2014 Kat organised a Project AWARE Finathon, where she and the finalists of the “Miss Scuba UK” Pageant swam in mermaid tails. They raised money to protect sharks and created awareness for the horrific shark finning industry. To stop people from eating shark fin soup, which causes the brutal slaughter of about 100 Million sharks yearly, Mermaid Kat supported the Ocean Geographic’s campaign “Facing Grace”. Therefore, Kat swam with wild hammerhead sharks and tiger sharks. She wanted to demonstrate that sharks are beautiful creatures that are often misunderstood. They are not man-eating monsters, as Hollywood likes to promote them.

To make people aware of the plastic patch in the Pacific Ocean, that is about twice the size of Texas, Mermaid Kat organised and supported countless events and campaigns. “Phuket Dives Against Debris” in Thailand, “Cleaning Day with Mermaids and Divers” in the Philippines and the Sea Shepherd “Marine Debris Campaign” in Australia are just a few of many more. The environmentalist supported an event in Germany where people got a reusable carry bag in return of a single use plastic bag, to make people more conscience about the danger of single use plastics.

Every single person can turn into an environmentalist easily. Please help to save this wonderful world we live in. Help with little things such as practising the principal “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”. Avoid single use plastics such as plastic bags, straws and take away cups. Reuse the plastics you can’t avoid as often as possible and then recycle them properly. Don’t leave cigarette butts at the beach or anywhere else where they can find their way into the environment. Reduce your consumption of fish. Save water and electricity and share this information with as many others as possible.

if you want to find out more, please watch documentaries like “The Cove”, “Blackfish”, ‘Sharkwater” and “Earthlings”.

Many cosmetic products such as scrubs contain small plastic particles (micro plastics). Through the waste water system, these easily make the way into our environment. Use natural cosmetics instead. Another great substitute are homemade cosmetics. Make your own body scrub by mixing coffee grounds with coconut oil or salt with olive oil.

Instead of chemical make-up removal products, use coconut or olive oil. Be an even bigger environmentalist and swab cotton pads to reusable pads made of fabric. They can easily be washed in the washing machine.

Who doesn’t love when it sparkles? But be careful! Glitter is often just plastic and cannot be recycled. Use an alternative glitter that is biodegradable (e.g. Project Glitter) or edible glitter that is used for cakes. Alternatively, you can also make glitter yourself: mix a little salt with food colouring and then let it dry in the oven for 10-15 minutes on low heat.

Confetti should not be missing at any New Year’s party. Instead of buying it in plastic packaging, just make natural confetti yourself: collect leaves in different colors (preferably in autumn) on your next walk in the forest and process them with a perforator. The result is beautifully colored confetti, completely natural and biodegradable. Also a great idea to keep children busy.

Even though you’re trying to do the right thing by recycling, many things can’t be recycled. The key is to to reduce as much waste, especially plastic, as possible. Are you still using the little plastic bags in the grocery store when buying your fruits and veggies? No need for that. Bring little reusable mash bags instead or none at all. You’re going to wash them anyway before you eat them, right?

Unlike most paper items, paper cups can’t be recycled because they’re actually coated in plastic. Remember to bring your reusable coffee cup wherever you go. You forgot it? Sit down in the cafe and actually enjoy your drink in a proper mug or glass. As a last resort, order your take away cup without the lid. Every little bit helps.

Time to redecorate the house? Instead of new furniture, buy some second hand, repair broken ones and pep up old furniture with some color and new handles. It’s fun and instead of throwing something away, you have “upcycled” something, congratulations.

Basically don’t waste. Not water, not food, not electricity … just nothing. Nature has created this planet in such a way that every living being gets exactly what it needs. However, human greed destroys this balance.

Cotton swabs are often not only used to clean the ears, but are also useful for many other things. Make sure to use environmentally friendly cotton swabs made from bamboo or similar and without any plastic.

We are over 7 billion people on this planet. If we all use and throw away 4 plastic toothbrushes a year, that’s a lot of plastic. Bamboo toothbrushes are a great alternative!

Children certainly like to play with balloons, but these too cannot be recycled and end up in the garbage after a few days. It’s even worse if balloons are let go to fly. What goes up must come down and causes considerable damage in nature. Explain to children how many penguins get caught in balloons and how many sea lions swallow them and perish. Bubbles are a great alternative and we mermaids are crazy about them.

Reduce packaging and buy in bulk shops. There you can buy groceries without packaging and simply fill your old jam jars or similar with all the groceries you need. And if you can’t get past the normal supermarket, avoid plastic packaging and choose paper or glass packed items instead.

Do not attend dolphin shows! Hundreds of dolphins are caught in the wild every year. Such wild catches are always a brutal affair: individual animals are separated from their families and shipped to a completely foreign environment in tiny transport boxes, where first of all they have to learn to eat dead fish. Many dolphins in captivity even commit suicide. No dolphinarium in the world can be designed in such a way that dolphins can live a species-appropriate life without suffering. Those who attend a dolphin show accept that the animals suffer for their own short pleasure. Film tip: THE COVE!

We women know it all too well. Rarely can we walk past the clothing store without buying something. Ultimately, clothing is also just “rubbish”. So before you buy new clothes all the time, ask yourself the question: “Do I really need it? I mean really, really? I mean really, really, really?” If the answer is still “yes”, try buying second hand. You can find big treasures and unique vintage items in second hand shops. They are also much cheaper than buying new.

Reduce your fish consumption or do without fish altogether. Fishing is actually responsible for most marine litter. So-called “ghost nets” often remain in the sea and cause terrible damage even over years. Recent studies have also found that most fish contains micro plastics. Fish is not as healthy anymore as it used to be 100 years ago.

Ask if plastic straws are used in the restaurant, if so, order your drinks without a straw. Make it a habit so you’ll remember this also when you are traveling to different countries. There are reusable straws available, so bring your own or just drink straight out off the glass. It’s actually not that hard to become an environmentalist, is it?