This interview-based paper examines Sharanya Manivannan’s Ila duology—Incantations Over Water and Mermaids in the Moonlight—through the lens of critical ocean studies and blue humanities. Her works reimagine the mermaid not as a mythic spectacle but as a sentient, postcolonial subject expressing ecological grief, diasporic longing, and feminist kinship. By drawing on South Asian coastal lore and global marine mythologies, Manivannan crafts narratives that challenge imperialist views of marine life and foster an “oceanic consciousness.” The aesthetic choices—poetic soliloquy, minimal color palettes, and spell-like lists—invite readers into a fluid, interspecies ethics of care. Positioned alongside contemporary graphic narratives that explore trauma, displacement, and environmental justice, Manivannan’s work speaks to readers across age groups. Her fiction and art merge cultural memory with ecological imagination, opening new avenues for nonhuman storytelling, coastal resilience, and the re-enchantment of planetary waters.