My Seafood Story

My family is from the Açores Islands; an autonomous region of Portugal, comprising 9 small islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Here, fish and seafood are a way of life. The ocean is the main economic driver on these islands and anyone who lives here will tell you that those who depend so heavily on the ocean for survival are also her greatest protectors. Fishing in the Açores is done under strict regulations, whale watching tours are operated from a conservative distance, and trash is properly disposed of before it even has a chance to reach the water’s edge. 

Growing up in a Portuguese household, I’ve been surrounded by seafood my entire life, peeling shrimp since before I could even walk. Seafood has always been part of my personal and family identity; it’s what I expect at family gatherings, it’s the food I gravitate towards at restaurants, it’s influenced my travel decisions, and ultimately shaped my career trajectory. 

As my academic career steered me towards environmental studies, particularly related to marine social sciences and sustainable food systems, I became increasingly more interested in how the oceans could sustainably feed the world and continue to support the economies and cultures of coastal communities, like the one that I come from.

And that was the catalyst for everything that Seaside with Emily is today.

The moment everything changed

I joke that my entire career is built on my ability to hold a grudge, and it’s not entirely untrue. 

Few people can pinpoint the moment that changed their entire life trajectory, but I can. 

It was a cold winter evening in a University of Guelph classroom. I was hosting a movie screening with a marine conservation organization that I was volunteering with at the time. 

After the movie, a member of the audience asked a question about seafood. My ears immediately perked up and I was excited for the discussion. 

Only, there was no discussion. 

The question was answered curtly by a member of the organization, “If you care about our oceans, you can't eat seafood. There is no such thing as sustainable seafood.”

They then scanned the room and called on the next person to ask their question. 

This moment happened so quickly and to anybody else in the room, it was insignificant. 

No one could have guessed the series of events that one sentence would trigger.

Not even I understand the magnitude of that moment at the time.

But in those few seconds, I realize now, I made a subconscious decision to prove this statement wrong.

Because I knew, even then, you absolutely, undeniably, CAN care about the oceans and eat seafood in a way that reflects that. I’d been doing it with my family on the islands my entire life. And the fishermen I knew were some of the kindest people I’d ever met, who only ever talked about their love of the sea. They were feeding their communities from the sea and they cared about the sea more than anything.

One sentence, one moment, changed the entire trajectory of my life.

It sounds dramatic, but it is 100% true.

After that moment, I made the decision to go to grad school. While I knew in my gut that there was a way to eat seafood sustainably, I wanted to gain the scientific knowledge to support that belief.

I completed my master's degree at the University of Guelph with a focus on small-scale fisheries in North America and the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on seafood supply chains. During my tenure as a researcher, I worked closely with academic institutions, government agencies, and NGOs to bring seafood to the forefront of the food security conversation. 

I published in academic journals, consulted for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and was awarded the Canadian Science Policy Centre’s Award of Excellence for my policy proposal on how to eliminate seafood fraud in Canada.

And while I loved the work that I was doing, I felt like I wasn’t having the impact that I wanted to. 

While I was finishing my degree, I noticed a lot of disconnect between scientists and the general public. Science communication is an issue in all fields of science, but even more so in fisheries, where things are “out of sight and out of mind”. 

And academia was proving to be a very difficult way to get simple information out to the average person in a timely manner.

So, as I’d been doing my entire life, I took matters into my own hands. 

I started to experiment with the idea of bringing seafood education onto social media.

Bringing seafood literacy into the digital age

See, while I was in school, I’d been building a social media platform as a side hustle, mainly talking about travel and food. (Read more about that here!) 

By the time the pandemic hit, I’d grown a substantial following and wanted to leverage it to talk to people about seafood. 

I started to make videos in my apartment explaining what “sustainable seafood” means, breaking down popular ecolabel criteria, and explaining the different types of fishing methods.

And turns out, people weren’t just hungry for this information.

They were starving for it. 

And so, Seaside with Emily quickly grew into the seafood education platform that it is today.

I continued to make regular content breaking down fisheries and aquaculture science and giving consumers insights into how to make sustainable seafood choices.

I started sharing my family’s seafood recipes and tips for handling and preparing seafood at home.

And as soon as it was safe to travel again, I jumped on a plane and straight into a fish pen - taking my audience along with me. 

I started a content series called On-Site with the World’s Seafood Producers™ to take my audience behind-the-scenes of the seafood industry and show them exactly where their seafood comes from. 

Bringing them to their seafood in a way that they’ve never seen before. 

My goal through this platform, and really everything I’ve done, going all the way back to that first cold, winter night on campus when I made the decision to go to grad school, has been to bring a new, radical level of transparency to the seafood industry and empower consumers to make responsible seafood choices. 

What began as a single moment of defiance has transformed into a mission-driven career, proving that we can care for our oceans and enjoy their bounty sustainably. Seaside with Emily stands as a testament to that belief, championing transparent seafood education for all and working to bring people together through the ocean.