ABSTRACT
The (in)tangible value of manatees in local and foreign uses – food items, medicines, objects, products of relationships – at the local level and in transatlantic networks of extraction and trade, are addressed. These views are published by early modern European writers, hence their own perspectives overlap or even dominate local ones. But all voices existed and are represented, and a panoply of interactions and feelings towards aquatic animals can be drawn from them. Sea turtles, sharks and remoras, seals and sea lions, are no longer strange creatures. They have a purpose; they are labour, food, or pets. They are real animals that play a particular role in human history or have an agency of their own.
