Jumping into a pool of women and men wearing fish tails is like being in an aquarium where characters from a familiar Walt Disney movie have come to life.The multicolored fins bedazzle the startled swimmer with their sparkles and their synthetic scales light up the chlorinated water. The mermaids, mermen and merchildren look at ease free diving up to 15 feet deep, their eyes wide open and their mouths fixed into effortless toothy-smiles. But what looks easy to these “merfolk,” has actually taken a lot of time, practice and money.”The breath hold is extremely challenging,” Hannah Fraser, explains, “It’s a mind game, your mind is telling you, you need oxygen. You just have to stay calm.”In her 13 years working as a mermaid, Fraser, known professionally as Hannah Mermaid, has learned to double her capacity to hold her breath underwater, going without an inhalation for up to three minutes. -