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Paper short abstract:

We aim to discuss the local techniques for enclosing sea turtles in the Caribbean, between the 16th and 18th centuries. We will address these structures as a way of maintaining the animals as marine resources alongside practices of domestication.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the consumption of sea turtles during the European colonization of the Caribbean, considering coastal enclosure techniques. Following Indigenous knowledge and practices of extraction, which already impacted ecosystems, turtles were presented as a viable resource for the subsistence of European settlers and navigators. The arrival of Europeans demanded a great deal of animal protein, a resource that in Europe was ensured by the controlled rearing of cattle which was not always possible to replicate in new colonial spaces. However, following that European model of livestock farming, marine resources were kept alive either to be consumed or sold in markets alongside cattle meat. This process involved both the intensive capture of these animals in their natural environment and the building of structures to keep the animals alive and confined in the water. As this process avoided the rapid putrefaction caused by the hot climate in these regions, no wasting occurred. Port Royal in Jamaica or the Cayman Islands, where archaeological and historical evidence shows the presence of nurseries supplying the port city's meat market on a daily basis, will be discussed. We will identify enclosure techniques and typologies, how these structures were linked to the availability of the resource, and dynamics of domestication.