Jenn Thornhill Verma

Jenn Thornhill Verma is an award-winning journalist and author specializing in the ocean, fisheries, environment and climate change.

As Canada's first Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Network fellow, she investigated Canada-U.S. cross-border protections for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale in The Globe and Mail's 2024-25 Entangled series, examining solutions to fishing gear entanglements, vessel strikes, climate-driven habitat shifts, and ocean noise pollution.

In 2026, Verma returns as an ORN fellow to investigate how regulatory gaps enable legally harvested Canadian Arctic wildlife to disappear into illegal global markets for The Globe's Surfaced series.

Her 2024 Unsettled series for The Globe examined how Labrador Inuit are adapting to climate change. The reporting contextualized local sea ice data according to the Nunatsiavut seasonal calendar, revealing that ice now spans only two of the region's six seasons — down from four—and produced Canada's first interactive Inuttitut sea ice glossary, developed through a data-sharing agreement.

Verma's earlier work includes her coverage of the collapse of Canada's east coast cod fishery, detailed in her nonfiction book Cod Collapse and animated short film Last Fish, First Boat. She also co-founded Seasplainer, a fisheries and oceans explainer series for The Independent, and previously worked in radio.

A fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and The Explorers Club, Verma serves as president of the alumni association at the University of King's College, where she also sits on the board.

Verma is a landscape painter and lives in Ottawa with her family.