An ‘ah-ha’ moment led marine biologist and Korean Canadian filmmaker Sonya Lee to her latest project, the docuseries Our Ocean Table.
“I worked on other people’s ocean stories, and I always felt like it must be really nice to have an ocean culture and to be so connected to the ocean without realizing I actually came from an ocean culture,” said Victoria’s Lee, a National Geographic Explorer who says her favourite place is to be underwater.
Sonya Lee, a National Geographic Explorer, marine biologist and filmmaker, set out to rediscover her Korean roots with help from the ocean. Her journey is chronicled in the new docuseries Our Ocean Table that she co-hosts with Hannah Sung.
“I had the realization when I was making Korean food and noticing there’s so much seafood … Once I realized that it just kind of snowballed into being, ‘Wow, if we don’t take care of these ingredients, we actually won’t be able to eat our cultural foods.’ And then it went from there.”
The three-part docuseries sees Lee and her co-host, cultural journalist and former MuchMusic VJ Hannah Sung, rediscovering their Korean roots and exploring how traditional Korean seafood dishes connect to the environment — and the importance of conservation and sustainability in preserving those links.
“What does it mean for our culture if our food disappears?” asks Lee in the series that premieres on May 1 on demand on Telus Optik TV, and streams on Telus Stream+ and CBC Gem.
The answer is served up with the help of Korean Canadian chefs, sustainable harvesters and community leaders from Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Calgary.
“I always want that extra little tidbit of, ‘OK, you’re telling me all about all these amazing ingredients and all of these amazing dishes, but what’s actually the state of this amazing prawn or, this seafood ingredient that you’re showing me?’ ” said Lee, who co-directed Our Ocean Table with Vancouver’s Jon Chiang. “What is happening to it? Can we keep eating it forever?”
Lee hopes the series will also help remove some of the negativity and blame that she says has been assigned to Asian cultures when it comes to environmental practices.
“In the conservation media spaces that I work in, often East Asians are the bad guys. The over-fishers, the poachers and the wildlife traffickers. And as somebody who is East Asian, I always found it really difficult, because I know that that’s just one side of the story,” said Lee, who is currently working on a short film with Vancouver Chef Jay Park, the winner of the gold medal at the 2026 Canadian Culinary Championship, and one of the chefs highlighted in Our Ocean Table. “There are amazing scientists and conservationists in our culture as well. We just don’t see them.
“So, one of the big things I would love people to see is that East Asian cultures also have a strong tie to the ocean and to the environment.”
Our Ocean Table is Lee’s first time in front of the camera after years of working on other documentaries for the CBC, NFB, PBS, National Geographic and others. For this move into the frame, she wanted a partner to work with, and reached out to Sung, who Lee grew up watching on MuchMusic in the early 2000s.
Hannah Sung, left, and Sonya Lee have teamed up to present the new docuseries Our Ocean Table. The three-part series has the hosts dive into their personal and professional experiences as they reconnect with Korean roots and eat well while also learning more about sustainable fisheries. Photo: The Jugaad sisters
“There’s this concept of an Eonni, which is like older sister in Korean. She very much felt like an Eonni,” said Lee about Sung. “I really wanted somebody else there with me, and I really trusted Hannah to do that. And she was very gracious enough to come on the journey with me.”
The pair initially met in the early days of COVID-19, when Lee slid into Sung’s DMs to talk about their shared love of Korean pop culture, particularly the hugely popular Korean boy band BTS.
“Sonya and I became friends, and we just kept up our chats. And then, whenever she came through Toronto, we’d meet up for lunch. And then this opportunity came up for her to create this series,” said Sung. “She called me up and said, ‘Hannah, I don’t want to do it alone. Will you do this with me?’ And at first, it was just an idea that was barely put on paper. I said, ‘Sure. why not?’ ”
Sung, who currently works in communications, admitted she was nervous about returning to an on-camera role. And she was also a bit reticent of exposing herself on a personal level.
“I was kind of nervous about exploring my own relationship with Korean culture and my identity on-camera, in a public way,” said Sung. “It’s something that can feel so private, or for a very inner circle, when we’re talking about these kinds of issues. But I quickly got over that because I feel it is so important to talk about things out loud.”
A Korean-themed series like Our Ocean Table is just another addition to the global surge in popularity of everything Korean. Known as Hallyu, a.k.a. Korean wave, everything from food to skin care to pop culture juggernauts like BTS, Blackpink, Squid Games and the wildly popular K-Pop Demon Hunters have crossed cultural borders.
“It was not cool to be Korean when I was growing up, but it’s cool to be Korean now,” said Lee.
Sung adds that not all cool Korean stuff is imported.
“I also love the stuff that is made by the Korean diaspora,” said Sung. “We all know (K-pop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang) is Korean Canadian, and she made it in America. And that’s what I’m so proud of with this series, Our Ocean Table, is that we’re Korean Canadian, and we’re talking about Canadian locations. We have our own sensibility that is Canadian.
“I was born and raised here, but my heritage, obviously, is Korean. And I’m deeply curious about all things Korean. But I’m never going to be a Korean Korean. I’m different. So, I love seeing all the content that’s coming from this generation of people.”
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