Linda Tatreau

What is your job on the ship? I am Tom’s partner and our job is to keep the website informative and up to date.

How long have you been doing this? I am a total novice--this is my first job at sea and my first experience working on a website. I have, however, worked as a teacher, in different fields, for most of my life. For the past 13 years I have been teaching marine biology at the high school level.

What is your favorite part of what you do? I work with juniors and seniors in high school, teaching marine biology on a tropical island paradise in the Pacific. What could be better than that?

What is the least favorite part of your work? I teach indoors. Marine biology, at its best, is happening at the beach and that’s where my my students should be.

How/why did you get into this field? I have always had a talent for teaching and a love for the ocean. The rest was good fortune.

What are your career goals? I want to continue teaching and keep improving my lessons and methods. I want to keep learning about oceanography and computers. I want to retire while I am still able to travel and hike and play a lot.

What is the biggest misconception about what you do? Teachers work short hours, have weekends, holidays and summers off. In reality, I work unbelievable hours. After school, weekend and holiday field trips and other activities are common. In the summer I prepare lessons for the next school year, prepare the room (painting, cleaning, refinishing tables, etc) and take classes to keep up to date in my field.

What is the most important skill/trait that you rely on? Enthusiasm. I have found it to be contagious and I can pass it on to my students and coworkers.

What is your most memorable experience from your career? In public education: having students win the island-wide science fair and traveling with them to Toronto, Canada to participate in the International Science Fair. A few years later I got to repeat the experience in Philadelphia with another winner. In my personal life: standing on the rims of erupting volcanoes and diving with killer whales.

Tell us something about yourself. I spent several years in Mexico where I lived on a work boat in the Mexican oil field with my husband, 2 kids and our pit bull. The kids got their high school education via home school. Today I live in Guam with the same husband (33 years now) and two dogs, MogFog and Plaster. My son, Jimmy, is an adventure videographer who paraglides over active volcanoes and parachutes from bridges and mountain cliffs. My daughter, Ann, races and organizes adventure races—the kind where you climb, run, kayak, swim, bike for days on end without sleep.