[14] While working as a senior scientist for the Sublimnos project, the first Canadian underwater habitat placed for open science research in the waters of Tobermory, Georgian Bay,[15][16] he was the first to report the "thermal pollution" impacts of a 100 ft high natural seiche intrusion.

[1] As curator, he conducted field and laboratory work on fish taxonomy, evolution, and ecology, describing the impact of various environmental and population factors on species richness in arctic, boreal, and tropical lakes and marine environments.

"[24][26] His 1983 expedition, co-directed with fellow Royal Ontario Museum ichthyologist and curator Richard Winterbottom, documented the origins of the Fiji fish fauna and studied the fisheries potential and tourism impacts on the Dravuni communities.

This expedition was a cooperative effort between the Institute of Marine Resources of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, and the Canadian Armed Forces.

[28] In 1989, Emery worked closely with government, the public, and leaders in Canadian mining to raise $5 million[29] to purchase for Canada "one of the greatest collections of minerals in the world" from William Pinch, a Rochester resident and avocational collector.

[37] Emery's design for an aquarium installation on LeBreton Flats that would combine water features, nature areas, and retail space, based on work starting in 1986[38][39] with the architectural firm Cambridge Seven Associates,[40] won a competitive National Capital Commission bid for the construction in 1990,[41][42] but the development was not implemented due to deep cuts to the National Capital Commission budgets in the same year as the successful bid[43] and complications caused by soil and water contamination from a long history of industrial uses.

"[47] Also beginning in 1993, Emery oversaw the development of a new state-of-the-art consolidated research and collections curation facility to replace those scattered among 11 buildings located around the National Capital Region[48] named the Natural Heritage Campus.

[61] He was the scientific advisor for many underwater documentaries including on The Last Frontier, a 100 program TV series produced and directed by John Stoneman and Mako Films that aired on CTV from 1987 to 1990.

Less science-oriented but still focused on the denizens of the marine world, Emery was also technical consultant for the undersea-life sections of the movie The Neptune Factor (1973, Canadian studio Kino Lorber, directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Ernest Borgnine among others).