Been playing the new update pretty regularly. I really like how the game feels right now. About the only critiques I have are regarding the power up fish. The Eel and Cajun fish are still my most used fish. The Puffer and the Squid don't offer any real benefits over the other two to make me go out of my way to use them.
It would be nice if the mermaid didn't have a swallow animation during the duration of the Puffer fish power. It'd be nice for the suction size to scale with the size of the mermaid as well. Allowing the mermaid to eat sharks one size bigger than normal would be cool too.
I actively avoid the squid powerups. It would be nice if there was some distinguishing feature that allowes you to easily tell the clones from your mermaid. It would also help if the clones spawned behind your mermaid in the layer order. I don't know how hard this would be to do, but if the clones had something like the ability to swim and eat fish for you, that would really make the squid power stand out. It would also make the squid power useful in the shark free mode.
You're doing a great job. Thanks for your efforts!