A startup founded by three university friends is making waves in the Canadian seafood industry by delivering wild-caught, sustainably certified, Canadian seafood directly to consumers’ doors across the country. Larry’s Catch, which began as a side hustle and is now a full-time business, currently operates in nine provinces and is looking to expand its reach.
“We started it kind of as a side gig, in the spring of 2024, and we’ve since gone full-time in September,” said Glen Creaser, Co-Founder and President of Larry’s Catch. “That’s when we really started taking this really seriously and working to scale the business and serve as many Canadians as possible.”
Creaser, who also oversees branding, product, and supplier relationships, runs the company alongside co-founders James Quinn and Javier Sanchez Mejorada. The company is based out of a Mississauga warehouse, though its roots began in Toronto.
“For quite some time, while we could keep things going out of deep freezers, we were running the business—my two co-founders and I—actually out of our house in Toronto,” said Creaser.
The idea for the business came from a personal struggle Creaser experienced after moving from Nova Scotia to Ontario.
“I grew up with a father as a fisherman,” said Creaser. “I grew up eating the best seafood you could imagine almost every single day. And then I moved to Ontario where I almost cut seafood completely out of my diet because I couldn’t find anything to the quality I was looking for.”
That quality gap, combined with concerns about transparency and sustainability in the seafood industry, drove Creaser to action.
“You could never really tell in the stores where the seafood was coming from. Most of it was imported from very kind of environmentally disastrous countries,” he said. “Over 80% of the seafood we consume in Canada is imported, especially inland as you move away from those kinds of coastal communities.”
“Most of it was previously frozen and thawed to display, which is a huge problem because that increases waste. With modern freezing technology, just keep it frozen because it really is the best quality you can find, especially in inland provinces.”
The company was named in honour of Creaser’s father.
“That really kind of pushed me to eventually start Larry’s Catch and name it after my father who is a retired fisherman,” he said.
Larry’s Catch sources seafood from all three coasts, including Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, and even Baffin Island in the Arctic.
“Nova Scotia is really where most of the stuff we source and sell,” noted Creaser. “We’re also working on a few products from Newfoundland and New Brunswick as well.”
The company’s founding team shares a deep connection that goes back to their first day at Queen’s University.
“We actually met on our very first day—we were on the same floor in our residence,” said Creaser. “We then moved in together with a few other buddies after that.”
Before launching Larry’s Catch, the trio even started and sold a software company, before ultimately leaving the tech industry behind.
“We all ultimately quit our lives in tech and joined the seafood industry where we’ve really been feeling like we’re doing super meaningful work and really pushing some very important support of our Canadian coastal communities,” said Creaser.
Asked about future international expansion, Creaser acknowledged the potential but emphasized the company’s current focus on Canada.
“There is some tariff business going on which would pose some challenges,” he said. “But Canadian seafood is internationally renowned and there is demand for it around the world.”
“In fact, 80% of our seafood is exported. So it’s honestly quite hard to find in Canada, which is why we even started this in the first place.”
He added, “We have a lot of folks that have been requesting our seafood, whether it’s Canadians that are living south of the border, or Americans who have visited Canada and really had the opportunity to taste the seafood that we have to offer.”
“But for now we’re very, very focused on Canada and serving as many Canadians as possible.”
Creaser believes Canadian consumers are beginning to shift more toward seafood—motivated by both health and environmental factors.
“In Canada specifically, we’re extremely underserved when it comes to seafood consumption,” he said. “There’s been almost a bad rep with seafood, especially inland, in Canada, so people aren’t eating as much.”
He highlighted a stark gap in consumption levels: “The average Canadian will eat 16 pounds of seafood throughout the year. The average person in the rest of the world will eat around 44 pounds. So what I like to use is the term ‘seafood deficient’ when I talk about Canada.”
“There are a ton of health benefits to eating seafood. It helps with your brain and your heart, longevity—I can really go on and on.”
In fact, some customers come to Larry’s Catch at the recommendation of their physicians.
“We actually have some folks who come to us whose doctors are telling them that they need to be eating more seafood,” said Creaser. “They’re looking for a high quality, zero additive, and naturally occurring option. So that’s why they actually come to us.”
As for the future, Creaser is passionate about continuing to serve Canadians with sustainable, local seafood.
“People are becoming much more health conscious and realizing that seafood—especially many species of seafood—are actually considered superfoods just because of how lean it is, packed with omegas and antioxidants,” he said. “As you can tell, I’m very passionate about this and I can go on and on.”
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