Seaside with Emily

by Emily De Sousa [DATE GOES HERE] Olá from Portugal Reader, Dean and I have spent this last week in Northern Portugal searching for our wedding venue! I cannot believe that I'm actually writing that. Getting married in Portugal feels so surreal. 💛🇵🇹As someone who spends so much of my time storytelling about the intersection of food, culture, and travel, it’s been incredibly special to experience my home country through a new lens—imagining how we can bring our closest friends and family...

Hi Reader, Happy summer! Or at least, happy "it's a heatwave and there's a ton of wildfire smoke clouding the skies so I'm staying inside" summer. Between the haze and the heat, I've been cooking at home way more than usual — which means a lot of quality time at the fish counter. And that's what got me thinking about this week's topic. I recently posted on Instagram about fresh vs. frozen seafood, and it took off in a way I didn't expect. Clearly this hits a nerve. So I figured it deserved...

Hi Reader, Farmed vs. wild. Big vs. small. Fresh vs. frozen. Every one of these is the same fight wearing a different jersey — and every time we have it out in public, we're telling consumers that most of the seafood actually available to them is the lesser option. Last week handed us another round. On an industry listserv I'm part of, dozens of emails went back and forth over several days, all about a single word: refreshed. "Refreshed" is what some sellers call fish that was frozen, thawed,...

by Emily De Sousa Earlier this week, the AP published a piece that echoed a sentiment many of us in the seafood industry have been carrying for a very long time: seafood sustainability has become too complicated for the people it was supposed to help. Reading it, I felt two things at once — vindication, and a knot in my stomach. The vindication was the easy part. Those of us who work in seafood marketing and communications have been saying this, in rooms big and small, for the better part of...

Hello from your favorite (about-to-be-married) tinned fish obsessive, Welcome to the Tinned Fish Edit! I have been doing a ton of cooking with tinned fish lately and restocking my tinned fish collection, so it felt like the perfect time to dive deeper into the tinned fish trend in this newsletter. Also, our wedding weekend kicks off in exactly one week and you better believe that we have incorporated seafood and wine into every aspect of the weekend, including tinned fish! Think Portuguese...

I just turned 30, and so naturally, it feels like a good moment to reflect on what three decades on this earth have taught me. Don’t worry, this is not a “30 things I’ve learned by 30” post. In my wise old age, I’ve realized that 30 is not that old, and I have not lived nearly enough to be handing out life advice. That realization did not hit at 29, though — so if you do want life lessons from a 29-year-old, you can read those here. I still stand by them. Over the last year, I’ve learned a...

Hey Reader, It’s been a wild few weeks — four home games in five weeks! Between the tailgates, recipe testing, and Dean’s busiest season, I feel like I’ve spent most of the last month bouncing between a parking lot and my kitchen. But now that the team’s on the road for a month, we finally get a breather from the tailgate grind and can settle into our winter arc. For us, that means getting back into routine: training hard, writing more, dreaming up big plans for 2026, and (of course) diving...

by Emily De Sousa [DATE GOES HERE] Hey Reader, The last time we caught up, I’d just wrapped a dream week in Japan. Since then, it’s been go-go-go in the best way: Dean and I dipped into Kauai for some much-needed R&R (read: poke, ocean swims, and hiking drama), I finally conquered the waterfall trail that defeated me two years ago, and we stopped by the Honolulu Fish Auction with the Hawaii Seafood Council—which, if you're me, is the equivalent of Disneyland. Then we came home… for exactly...

by Emily De Sousa [DATE GOES HERE] Hey Reader, I’ve dreamed about going to Japan for years. The food, the culture, the precision and beauty in everything—from sushi to the impeccably clean streets—it’s always felt like a place that blends intention with indulgence. So when some Japanese Grand Prix tickets became available and we realized we'd already be on our way to Hawaii a week later, we thought: why not stop in Japan first? Was it kind of last minute? Yes. Was one week anywhere near...

by Emily De Sousa [DATE GOES HERE] Hey Reader, It’s been a whirlwind over here lately—and honestly, I’m just now starting to catch my breath. I got back from SENA (Seafood Expo North America) not long ago, and wow… what a few days. If you’ve never been, just picture three full days of meetings, panels, networking, late-night catch-ups with industry friends, and walking miles on miles on the convention floor. It’s exhausting, inspiring, and overstimulating all at once. I always leave SENA with...

by Emily De Sousa [DATE GOES HERE] Hey Reader, If you were in Boston this month, you know the energy at SENA was different — in the best way. From the show floor to the receptions, one thing was clear: the seafood industry is ready to shake off silos and start thinking bigger. This year’s expo wasn’t just about product — it was about people, partnership, and pushing the whole category forward. Whether you were there in person or following along from afar, here are the big themes that had...