Karen Pinchin
Ocean Reporting Network Fellow
Karen Pinchin is a Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-based science journalist specializing in investigation-fuelled longform stories about food systems, environment, technology, and culture. Her first book, the award-winning Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas (2023) was a national bestseller published in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Master of Arts in science, health and environmental reporting, Karen got her start at the Canadian Press and went on to write for Maclean’s, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail. In 2019/2020 she worked as PBS FRONTLINE’s Tow Fellow and most recently taught creative non-fiction writing at the University of King’s College in Halifax.
Karen’s reporting on complex marine issues and environmental conflict — ranging from transnational eel crime to Indigenous repatriation of oyster farming traditions — has won gold awards at the Atlantic Journalism Awards and the National Magazine Awards and been supported by the Sloan Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, and two Marian Hebb Research Grants. A longtime contributor to Canadian Geographic, Karen is also a trained cook.
