About Shattered Shores

About the Shattered Shores Project

In 1999, a teenager named Daniel Mercer left his home in Palmerton, Michigan, to embark on a missionary trip to South America. He never arrived. The ship he was traveling on, the SS Providence, sank among an uncharted chain of islands. Stranded, Daniel found himself alone in an environment unlike anything else on Earth.

Over the next twenty years, Daniel did something unexpected for someone in his position: he began to study and document his surroundings. By compiling his maps, writings, and sketches, we gain insight into what is now known as the Floating Isles. When he and a small group of survivors finally escaped the island chain in 2019, he brought his records and material samples with him.

Since then, no expedition has been able to relocate these islands. Everything we know comes from Daniel’s records. However, the specimens he recovered support many of his claims, and testimony from fellow survivors corroborates his account. Matching some of his narratives to records of ships and aircraft lost in the region further reinforce the likelihood that these islands exist. Taken all together, there is little reason to doubt the overall credibility of Daniel’s observations.

Many of the creatures he describes were previously known only from the fossil record. Others appear to be entirely unknown—unrecorded anywhere else, living or extinct. Still others are strangely identical to creatures we see in various places around the world.

What follows are selections from Daniel’s personal records: detailed observations of the islands and the life forms that inhabit them. It is important to note; as reliable as he may be, Daniel was not a scientist. He arrived on the islands with a laymen's familiarity to scientific terms and processes. To accompany his accounts, we have also included sections titled “Naturalist Notes,” which provide additional scientific commentary and informed speculation, including the scientific names of the creatures he describes. It is our goal to help interpret his discoveries with these notes.

This collection also includes excerpts from Daniel’s journal, offering a narrative of his time on the islands. Beyond making for a compelling account, these passages provide valuable insight into the creatures and ecosystems through his direct interactions with them.

Although the Floating Isles have yet to be found again, the evidence Daniel brought back suggests they are very real—and perhaps one day we will realize they're not as unreachable as they seem.