A Spotlight on Seafood Tourism in Canada
If I had to describe my niche in one word, it would be pescatourism. Pescatourism, or seafood tourism, refers to experiences that combine fisheries and tourism. It’s a relatively new development in sustainable tourism, having been established in the early 1990s in Italy. Its intention is to supplement the incomes of fishermen, while educating the general public about the state and problems of the marine sector.
Oftentimes, pescatourism experiences involve things like going fishing with local fishermen, touring fish markets, visiting fishing villages, eating traditionally prepared seafood, and other activities that provide guests with a more immersive seafood experience. While pescatourism originated in the Mediterranean, today you can find pescatourism experiences all over the world – including right here in Canada.
With the longest coastline in the world, Canada has no shortage of seafood tourism experiences. From touring local oyster farms in BC to hopping on a fishing boat in Fogo Island, Canada is truly a pescatourism destination!
To celebrate Canada’s vibrant seafood tourism industry, I sat down with three pescatourism champions from Canada’s east and west coasts to talk a little bit more about their unique experiences and the importance of seafood tourism.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about your seafood tourism operation and how you got involved in seafood tourism?
A: Malindi Taylor – Fanny Bay Oysters
Fanny Bay Oysters has been welcoming tourists to the Comox Valley for over 30 years. Pre-covid we were offering twice a week tours of our processing plant which is located right off the farm in Fanny Bay. We would see visitors from all over the world stop by to see our farm and processing. We expanded our tours during the summer BC Seafood Festival every year which allowed us to show more people all the hard work that goes into getting oysters onto your plate. We also have done many private tours for local chef groups or conservation organizations to show them the benefits of sustainable shellfish aquaculture.
A: Taylor Meekin – Fogo Island Fish
I am currently working for Shorefast and Fogo Island Fish respectively. As a Chef I have always had a fascination with fishing and the ocean and the need for getting closer to where my food comes from. This was the catalyst to changing careers for me.
We have two businesses that could be considered as Seafood tourism operations. The Fogo Island Inn and Fogo Island Fish, both have unique opportunities to endorse seafood tourism and very different avenues to apply. Both are social businesses for Shorefast. Shorefast is a registered charity whose mission is to build cultural and economic resilience on Fogo Island and to serve other communities by sharing place-based models of economic development.
Fogo Island Inn brings people from all over the world to experience the community and food of Fogo Island. There are opportunities for guests to get on a boat with local fishers, learn butchery and about all the ways to eat fish, as well as hear the stories of people who have lived and fished on the island for years. This community and sense of place, creates a connection that is not easily broken.
Fogo Island Fish, has an opportunity to bring the fish and seafood caught and processed on Fogo Island to Canadians across the country. Giving us the chance to tell the story of Fogo Island Fisheries and the community.by selling fish that would be typically exported from internationally to Canadian diners, we can reduce our carbon footprint. It also gives us the opportunity to pay the fishers a better price for the hard work they put into their craft. We have focused primarily working with Restaurants and Chefs knowing that this is the best way to keep our fish and seafood talked about and enjoyed.
A: Cornel Ceapa – Acadian Sturgeon & Caviar
Our business is really unique in the world and we have always been educating clients, local people and visitors about sturgeon, sustainability, serving caviar etc. About 5 years ago we started to be a little overwhelmed by the demand to visit and taste our products so we decided to offer different touristic experiences in order to at least cover some of the expenses related to our time and products used during the visits. We diversified our touristic offer in 3 main components, that are customizable depending on our clients needs:
- Caviar Academy: offered year round, either at the farm or around Canada, 2-3 hours, multi course tasting and education, minimum 4, maximum 48 people per group.
- Sturgeon Safari: only during the months of May and July, about 6 hours experience, participating in sturgeon harvest and research, tour of the facilities, multi course tasting and education, minimum 2, maximum 10 people.
- Sturgeon & Caviar Extravaganza: Only during the month of May and July, 2 days experience, participating in sturgeon harvest and research, tour of the facilities, river boat tour, bonfire and sturgeon barbecue, multi course tasting and education, minimum 4, maximum 10 people.
4 years ago we were one of the 3 finalists for Canada at the TIAC for Culinary Tourism and although during the pandemic the number of bookings decreased we continued to offer all these experiences.
P.S. You can read more about my experience visiting Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar HERE.
For me, I love seafood tourism because it provides a unique opportunity to reconnect with our food systems and learn more about our oceans (which are often so misunderstood!). I love that seafood tourism makes the marine world more accessible and helps guests gain a deeper appreciation for what really goes into harvesting and preparing a delicious seafood dish. But, I wanted to know more about why these seafood tourism champions think pescatourism is so important.
Q: Why is seafood tourism important?
A: Taylor Meekin – Fogo Island Fish
I feel that helping people understand where their food comes from and the idea of the communities that produce what we eat is invaluable because it encourages a sustainability mindset and respect for the fish on our plate and the people who harvested it.
The environmental and economical impacts can be seen easily as looking around the Fogo Island. Our Fish is caught by one hook on one line and pulled up by hand, our fishers are out in smaller vessels. They bring their catch to the FICOSL(Fogo Island Cooperative society ltd) owned by the fishers and workers of the Coop, it is processed within 100m of where it is landed and then shipped to storage in Ontario in one trip. This idea is very unlike a lot of fish and seafood that comes from Canadian waters.
I feel it is important for people to know this story, to know what they choose to eat, and when they do, their choices of where they shop and what they shop for will change as they now feel they have sense of place and a connection to what they are eating.
A: Malindi Taylor – Fanny Bay Oysters
Getting the general public to interact with their food at the farm level is incredibly important for showing them how much effort goes into just 1 oyster, what sustainable seafood looks like from farm to table, and providing a place of mind for their next oyster experience. There is nothing better for your brand than direct interaction with your customers.
A: Cornel Ceapa – Acadian Sturgeon & Caviar
Tourism is the most effective way to tell the story (if you really have an authentic one…) of your business and products and to create real and best brand ambassadors! People get fully immersed in your business philosophy and buy into your passion and vision for your business. They interact with your employees, taste the product and get the first hand education about how to cook, use and taste your products! There is not better way to promote your business in my opinion!
Each of these leaders also provided insight into the true impact of seafood tourism and how these immersive experiences can actually translate into lifelong behaviour changes.
Q: What do you think changes when consumers take the step beyond just eating seafood, to actually learning more about where it came from?
A: Cornel Ceapa – Acadian Sturgeon & Caviar
Ideally, I would hope that CFIA would require that every seafood sold in Canada to be clearly labelled with the country of origin and some sort of universal sustainability ranking. But unfortunately many sustainability certifications are inaccessible to small fisheries of businesses and also are not reliable on the long run… For this reason when you open your business to tourism and you are transparent the customers get to see first hand if you are really sustainable and will know which product to choose in the market when put in the situation to select between yours and an unknown, “grey” origin product.
A: Taylor Meekin – Fogo Island Fish
I feel that most of the time people see just whats in front of them, convenience taking precedence this is not a slight. Shopping in a grocery store is fine but can most actually answer questions about where the food is coming from aside from reading the label. Whats behind that label and what do you not see, about where it came from? Was it shipped somewhere for processing then shipped back here for packaging (product of Canada)? What are the standards of life for the people working to bring this product to you? Where are the profits of this product actually going? With fish fraud growing at an exponential rate it is very easy to misrepresent or be fooled by words on a package. I think when people are educated on these points they make better decisions about what they choose to eat.
A: Malindi Taylor – Fanny Bay Oysters
A deeper appreciation for the people that grow the product and their craft. Seafood is incredibly complicated and there are a million and one myths out there that are so easily debunked by simply seeing an active farm first hand. We don’t expect all of our customers to become oyster experts, but just a basic understanding of bivalves is something we feel we leave our tour groups with.
As a relatively new niche, seafood tourism still has a lot of opportunity to grow. As pioneers in the Canadian seafood tourism industry, I asked these three leaders what they envisioned for the future pescatourism.
Q: What do you envision for the future of seafood tourism?
A: Malindi Taylor – Fanny Bay Oysters
Currently with restrictions still ebbing we’ve been doing virtual tours on TikTok and our other social media platforms. I don’t see that ending as people will I think always continue to consume online first, but I see more interactive seaside farm/restaurant partnerships forming daily. Having people come see your product being grown is great, but then getting to eat it fresh at the source is another! There are already some very successful examples of this in the US at Taylor Shellfish in Samish Bay, HamaHama in the Hood Canal, and Hog Island down in Northern California. I also see the return to festivals being a big one, almost all seafood festivals nation-wide have been canceled for two years so I think they will only come back bigger and better than before.
A: Taylor Meekin – Fogo Island Fish
I think Real Seafood tourism is what people like Kimberly Orren are doing in Petty Harbour with Fishing for Success and women who fish, bringing people from communities around and abroad educating them on the historical significance of the fisheries in their community. I know there are many operations happening around the world with similar programs and bringing people back to a less invasive fishery. I think there is merit in everyones ideas of educating about seafood as a connection of place. If we don’t loose sight of community and regenerative practices that fueled the initial dreams behind these operations there is a bright future for seafood tourism.
A: Cornel Ceapa – Acadian Sturgeon & Caviar
Tourism in general has become more experiential and there is a huge opportunity for the seafood to redeem itself through educational tourism. If company are inviting tourists to see how they produce seafood it like they have daily observers in their business that will spread continuously the word about how sustainable the company and products are! Each seafood production company, either wild harvest or aquaculture should have a dedicated tourism department or person in charge who should continuously spread the word through social media and third parties reviews about sustainability of the company. Also any company should have a Tripadvisor account.
If you want to hear more from these seafood tourism leaders, join us at the Terroir Symposium on Monday November 15 at 8:30PM. Save 50% on your ticket with the code “PESCATOURISM”.
