People have been reflecting upon their encounters with marine animals for a long time. Sailors, Native peoples, biologists, whalers, beachgoers, and tourists, among many others, have chronicled a range of encounters across multiple genres and modes of storytelling. Marine animals have been characterized as beasts, monsters, victims, gods, research subjects, commodities, kin, and — as the title of this seminar suggests — aliens, to name but a few. As Stacy Alaimo and other blue humanities scholars have argued, oceans and shores are important …