NOAA Denies Existence of Mermaids

NOAA Denies Existence of Mermaids : Discovery News
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which usually deals with environmental matters like tsunamis and hurricanes, recently took the strange step of posting a statement on their website denying that mermaids exist.

In a post titled, “No Evidence of Aquatic Humanoids Has Ever Been Found,” NOAA notes that:
The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species.
Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago, when modern humans gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas.
Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology — in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few.
But are mermaids real?
No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found."
Why would NOAA bother to pour cold water on mermaids?
After all, there are many mythical things that the government doesn’t explicitly deny exist.
The United States Bureau of Mines doesn’t issue statements clarifying that no dragons or trolls have been discovered in underground caves or mines, for example.

So why mermaids? And why now?