How Seaside with Emily was started

Seaside with Emily began in 2015.

Before it was the seafood learning platform that it is today, it was a travel and food blog called “Airplanes & Avocados”. 

I started Airplanes & Avocados at the age of 19 in my brand new university dorm room in Ottawa. Truthfully, I was feeling incredibly lost and unsure about my future. 

I had just come off of a gap year, where I had the opportunity to travel solo for the first time in my life. It was one of the most fundamental experiences in my life and all I thought about after I’d returned home was how I could keep travelling. 

Graduating high school with no direction was daunting but being abroad helped me get comfortable in the uncertainty. I realized I didn’t need to have everything figured out and that I could make my life anything I wanted.

That first trip unlocked an insatiable curiosity within me - I wanted to learn everything I could about other cultures, cuisines, languages, and ways of life. 

But I didn’t want to read about it in books. I wanted to immerse myself in these places that were so different from the one I was from. I wanted to chase after a life of discomfort and growth. I wanted to experience something new every day. 

The only problem was, I had a different life to get back to. I was starting my studies at the University of Ottawa and on track to get a “real job”.

Bailing on my life after tuition was paid and my dorm was secured wasn’t an option. 

My mind was overstimulated and overwhelmed thinking about the places that I needed to experience and how the hell I was going to make it happen while I was trapped at school, on track towards a conventional life that I feared more than anything. 

So, I started to write. 

I took all the journals that I’d been furiously scribbling in while on trains in Europe and typed them into blog posts, sharing my innermost thoughts with the world and hoping someone would be listening. 

Then, I started to write about things I was discovering in my new city: restaurants, study spots, cool cafes. I started to write about bookstores where I’d found inspiration for my next trip, I started writing about my trip planning process, and publicly sharing my bucket lists.

I dedicated hours every single day to writing blogs and building a website - the latter in which I knew nothing about. 

And of course, I was still a full-time university student.

Barely so, if I’m being honest. 

I would sit in the back row of my classes with a blank stare, my mind thinking about my next blog post or how I could get funding to go on another trip so I’d have somewhere new to write about. 

Ultimately, I was becoming a better blogger and creator, but a worse student. 

I ended up changing my major after nearly flunking out of my program. I loaded my second semester with electives more related to travel in an attempt to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. 

It was during this time that I also started to learn more about the business side of blogging and realized that there was a way I could really make a career out of this. 

Bingo, I thought. Dream career unlocked.

My parents weren’t entirely sold on the idea of me galavanting around the world and writing about on my cute little blog (which in their defense, I’m pretty sure they were the only ones reading at that time), so I continued to pursue my blogging career on the side while remaining a full-time student.

I did end up changing my major, deciding that environmental governance at a school closer to home would give me a chance to do some sort of good for the world while also saving money for my next trip.

As I furthered my formal education and earned my undergraduate degree in Environmental Governance, I began applying my passion and knowledge for sustainability to my blog. Over the years, my content began to focus on sustainable tourism and how to explore the world in a way that has minimal impact on the environment.

And eventually, my studies niched down even more to focus on sustainable food systems and ultimately, seafood.  

Despite my eagerness to leave the classroom for new adventures abroad, I unexpectedly found myself in grad school after falling deeply in love with sustainable food systems research. 

During my master’s research, where I was exploring seafood’s role in feeding the world, I noticed significant gaps in consumer knowledge about seafood and was shocked by the amount of misinformation circulating online.

The seafood industry wasn't exactly known for being transparent. Plus, the lack of effective communication and outreach from scientists only made things more confusing for consumers. It was tough for the average person to sift through all the information (and misinformation) online to figure out what was true and what wasn’t. It was easy to feel overwhelmed at the seafood counter when trying to make a sustainable choice.

I wanted to change that.

I grew up eating seafood my entire life and understood its cultural significance and health benefits from an early age. Then, through grad school I learned about seafood’s environmental benefits and its important role in global food security.

I understood the power of seafood and I wanted to help others understand too.

Combining my fisheries science background with my platform as a digital content creator, I started to experiment with the idea of bringing seafood education onto social media.

I sifted through all of that scientific information about sustainable seafood and started communicating it on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, my email list, and of course this blog - in a way that made sense to everyone.

And because a passion for travel runs deep in my veins, I took that sustainable seafood education worldwide. I didn’t just want to help you navigate the seafood counter at home, but I also wanted to uncover the best seafood stories and destinations around the world - very much an ode to the original “Airplanes & Avocados” platform.

I like to think that today,  I’m a little bit Bill Nye and a little bit Anthony Bourdain. 

Since starting my blog in 2015, I’ve been to over 30 countries, sailed through the Caribbean, and published over 400 blog posts. I’ve given a TEDx talk, been featured in Good Morning America, and won several awards for my science communication work. Most importantly, I’ve made lifelong friends and built a community of people who are driven by similar values that drive me, and built a purposeful life driven by the desire to help more people experience and enjoy seafood sustainably around the world.

I am so happy to have you here along for the journey.