Anyone who has ever snorkeled or dived with Ann Fielding retains a single enduring image of her: Just up from the water, an array of reference books on marine life spread before her, her clients huddled around. She's totally engaged in explaining what they've just seen and her boundless enthusiasm is shared by the entire group.
Ann earned her
undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Hawaii. She
was the Waikiki Aquarium's first director of public education and she
conducted research in crustacean taxonomy at the Bernice P. Bishop
Museum in Honolulu. Ann moved from Honolulu to Maui in 1979 to become
the head of the Science Department at Seabury Hall, a private college
preparatory school in "up-country" Maui.
She was a
consultant on reef biology to the Maui Ocean Center, a major new
aquarium. She served as the marine naturalist on the World
Discoverer, an eco-adventure tour cruise ship in the South Pacific in
1998
Ann is a
PADI scuba diving instructor and an accomplished underwater
photographer. And in her boundless curiosity about everything, she
has gained expertise in Maui's geology, bird life, botany and
cultural history.
But above
all, she's a teacher. Not in a classroom (she found that too
confining). Years ago she chose to leave the laboratory and school to
teach ecology in the living classroom of the sea. She does it by
sharing the excitement of discovery with her clients: "Did you see
that? Cool!"
Ann is the
mother of a grown son and daughter and has two grandchildren. Anyone
bringing their children to Maui really ought to spend some time with
Ann. The kids who go snorkeling and tidepooling with her all go home
wanting to be marine biologists. What could possibly be more
fascinating or fun?
In recent
years Ann has led tours for The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra
Club. Schools on Maui also ask her to lead field trips.
Ann also founded
and operates "Island Explorations", a travel company that provides
marine-life study tours to other places in the tropics. Among the
co-sponsors of her trips to the South Pacific in past years are the
Waikiki Aquarium and Stephen Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of
Oceanography.
Ann has
received loads of accolades in the two decades she has been operating
Snorkel Maui and Island Explorations. But perhaps the nicest came
from Irwin, the Belgian cook aboard the Palau
Aggressor, a couple of years ago. Irwin was sitting with one
of Ann's friends in the rear of the salon watching Ann lecture on
butterflyfishes, one of her favorite topics.
"You know,"
Irwin said, "Ann is the kindest person who has ever been aboard this
boat."