Valentine Thomas

Valentine Thomas (born 1987), is a city worker from Canada currently based in London. It’s not her profession that launched her into the social media spotlight, but rather, her hobby of choice — spearfishing. With thousands of followers, Thomas documents her spearfishing adventures with vivid photographs, where users flock to deliver both encouraging and disparaging comments about her hobby.
Thomas spoke about getting into spearfishing, dealing with sexism, and handling backlash from those who call her hobby inhumane. The words “sustainable eating” are included in Thomas’ biography section on Instagram, which point to her practices when spearfishing.
“For me to be able to grab my own food is amazing,” Thomas said. “I like everything — even cleaning the fish afterwards. We are really involved in sea preservation. We never kill anything we won’t eat. People get really angry, they get upset because they are not used to seeing where their food comes from. Everyone turns a blind eye to what they are eating and I put the reality in front of them.”