That’s What She Speared
Born in Montreal, trained as a lawyer in Canada and later working in finance in London, Valentine traded office towers for open water, spreadsheets for spearguns and city shoes for fins. Today, she is a world-class spearfisher, freediving instructor, author, educator and advocate for sustainable seafood systems, with a global platform built around one very clear idea: we should know where our food comes from, respect the ocean that provides it and maybe, just maybe, stop pretending dinner magically appears on a plate.
In The Florida Keys, that message feels especially at home.
When the Ocean Says “Not Today”
This is a place where water is not just scenery. It is livelihood, playground, pantry, compass, mood ring and occasional chaos agent. For Valentine, the Keys are also personal: a family spot, a fishing spot and, naturally, the setting of a few stories that sound like they were marinated overnight in saltwater and bad decisions.
Her first Keys diving experience? Not exactly a postcard.
“My first diving experience in the Keys was absolutely terrible ha!” Valentine says. “I was there for a tournament called ‘That’s What She Shot,’ funny enough, with my friends Jerry Guerra and GR Tarr. Water was murky, like chocolate milk murky! And those boys take tournament very seriously.”
The group headed to deep spots, around 130 to 150 feet, in less-than-glamorous visibility. Valentine spent the day hoping to cross paths with a mackerel.
“I didn’t ha!” she says. “But we had a lot of fun, like we always do!”
And honestly, that is very Florida Keys: sometimes the water is clear as glass, sometimes it is chocolate milk, sometimes the fish are cooperative and sometimes the ocean looks you directly in the mask and says, “Not today, friend.”
A cooler with range
Ask Valentine about her favorite fish to hunt and she does not give a one-size-fits-all answer. Because the ocean does not do one-size-fits-all. It does seasons, currents, temperatures, moon phases and mysterious fish logic.
“It depends on the season,” she says. “My favorite fish to hunt is wahoo, but I like a varied cooler to then make a feast with different types of dishes with different fish. I also like a thinner wetsuit and Wahoos show up when it’s colder!”
Translation: Valentine is not just chasing fish. She is thinking about the meal, the method, the season and the story. Wahoo may be the headliner, but the dream cooler has range, the aquatic equivalent of a really good dinner party guest list.
In The Florida Keys, that variety is part of the magic. With access to both Atlantic and Gulf waters, divers encounter different bottom types, habitats, species and conditions. For someone like Valentine, who approaches seafood as both hunter and cook, that variety is everything.
“With having access to both the Caribbean and the Gulf side, you get varied types of bottoms, species and water,” she says. “I went out with some friends and caught a mangrove and a hogfish."
With that, Valentine makes ocean-to-citrus ceviche like a person who fully understands the assignment.
The Keys, but make it family
For Valentine, The Florida Keys are more than a destination. They are tied to people she loves.
“My childhood best friend from Montreal married my roommate from St. Pete and they live in the Keys, so it is a family spot for me,” she says.
She often dives around Key Largo, a place she describes as beautiful, clear and sometimes unpredictable.
“We usually dive Key Largo, which can be hit and miss,” she says. “I had some days where it was on fire and caught amazing fish though! And the water is so clear and beautiful.”
That duality is part of the Keys experience. One day, the ocean is generous. The next, it asks you to earn it. Conditions shift, fish move and success is never guaranteed, which is precisely why a good day on the water feels so earned.
A Key West night and a very memorable morning
No true Keys story is complete without at least one classic Key West evening, a bicycle ride and the optimistic belief that tomorrow’s dive will be totally fine.
“Well, I was younger haha,” Valentine says, remembering a night out on Duval Street before a day on the water.
The plan was to head out for wahoo the next morning. The reality was a little more character-building.
“Let’s just say I learned the hard way that Key West nights and early-morning dives require balance,” she says. “The captain had to grab me by the wetsuit to help pull me back on the boat. But I still got a couple of kingfish, so good times!”
There are travel stories, and then there are Florida Keys travel stories. This one belongs in the latter category, preferably framed in a dive shop next to a sign that says: hydrate, respect the captain and never underestimate Duval Street.
A place worth protecting
For all the humor, Valentine speaks seriously about the ocean and the responsibility that comes with taking from it.
“The Keys are such a special place that needs to be protected at all costs from poachers,” she says.
That perspective is central to her work. Valentine’s career is rooted in sustainable seafood, personal accountability and reconnecting people with nature. Spearfishing, at its best, is selective. It asks the diver to identify the fish, understand the rules, make a conscious decision and take only what is needed.
It is not grocery shopping with fins. It is participation.
Valentine is also candid about the pressures she has seen in the region.
“Unless you go to Key West, it is sadly overfished,” she says. “The proximity to Miami and the persistence of bad people exploiting the ocean there made it much harder to fish with the years. You have to dive pretty deep to get something decent. It is not a beginner’s spot.”
It is a reminder that The Florida Keys are beautiful, but not invincible. Healthy fisheries require good stewardship, strong regulations, responsible anglers and divers, and a shared understanding that “paradise” is not a passive thing. It has to be protected.
And in The Florida Keys, that protection is personal. The ocean is the reason people come here, live here, work here, cook here and return here. It is the main character.
What makes a great day?
For Valentine, the answer starts with a joke and ends somewhere deeper.
“When…you caught a good fish haha,” she says. “I am joking. Kinda.”
She is joking. Kinda. Because yes, bringing home dinner is part of the thrill. But it is not the whole story.
“While it is nice to go home with food, spending the day on the water is always special and amazing,” she says. “Especially now that I became a mother, I cherish even more days spent out at sea with my friends and doing what I love. I will never take it for granted.”
That may be the truest thing about spearfishing in The Florida Keys. The fish matter. The feast matters. The bragging rights, boat snacks and post-dive stories absolutely matter. But the real prize is the day itself: blue water, good friends, sore legs, salty hair and the kind of laughter that usually begins with, “Remember when…”
Valentine says she has already caught the fish she once hoped to catch in the Keys.
“This will probably make me sound old, but I got all the fish I wanted in the Keys hehe,” she says. “I spent quite a bit of time there and over the years got pretty much everything, but nothing wrong with shooting them all over again!”
Nothing wrong with returning, either.
Because The Florida Keys have a way of doing that. They give you a story, then invite you back for another one.
Want to bring a little more sustainable seafood inspiration into your kitchen? Valentine’s cookbook, Good Catch: A Guide to Sustainable Fish and Seafood with Recipes from the World’s Oceans, is packed with recipes, ocean stories and guidance for preparing seafood with more confidence and care.
Dive into the book here: Good Catch by Valentine Thomas
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Valentine Spearfishing in Key West
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