Oceans defender: Sarika Cullis-Suzuki
How David Suzuki’s youngest daughter is making a difference
Vancouver, B.C. // Age: 28
In a way, Sarika Cullis-Suzuki is just joining the family business: She’s the youngest daughter of environmentalist David Suzuki, and her older sister Severn was a noted activist from a young age. With her father, Cullis-Suzuki co-hosted The Suzuki Diaries, a CBC program that highlights environmental solutions, and has since gone solo on documentaries about marine protected areas. Cullis-Suzuki’s message is that living green will benefit each of us, as well as the planet.
Take the case of the prawns. While on Quadra Island this summer for her doctoral research into the effects of shipping noise on fish, Cullis-Suzuki ordered a prawn salad at a restaurant. At her table appeared bland tiger prawns that had been farmed and frozen in Thailand, then shipped across the ocean. Meanwhile, the local trap-caught spot prawns are approved as a sustainable choice by the marine watchdog group SeaChoice. “The fresh prawns available from the fishery at the end of the street probably would have been delicious,” she says.
This profile is part of our Top 30 under 30 feature.
