About Beth Ann Mathews

Elizabeth A. Mathews, M.S.
Marine Biologist

Beth Mathews is a marine biologist who grew up in a large family in the Midwest. With a degree in Animal Science from Purdue University, she became a zookeeper in the bird department at the Tulsa Zoo, a job she loved. When an opportunity to volunteer with a team of biologists on an ambitious study of breeding humpback whales in Hawaii came along, she was granted a leave-of-absence by her thoughtful boss. The experience assisting graduate students and seasoned biologists on a multi-faceted humpback whale project off Maui inspired her to pursue a master’s degree in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studied under Dr. Kenneth S. Norris.

As an associate professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, Beth taught courses in biology, behavioral ecology, and marine mammalogy and led research on harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and harbor porpoises with her students, mainly in Glacier Bay National Park. She has also studied humpback, gray, and sperm whales and—briefly—sleeper sharks, and led undergraduate research programs on board tall ships in the Gulf of Maine and from field camps in Hawaii and Alaska.

After twenty years in Alaska, Beth and her husband sold their home to begin an expedition with their young son on the family’s 42-foot sailboat from Alaska to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Feedback from her blog during the three-year journey inspired her to write stories about their boating adventures as well as Deep Waters, a memoir about her family’s struggle to survive, and move beyond, her husband’s unusual stroke in 2008.

She has published numerous scientific papers. Deep Waters, Mathews’s first book, won the Memoirs (personal struggle /health issues) category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and a bronze award in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, for Best Regional Non-Fiction, West-Pacific Region and other awards. Her second memoir will be published by She Writes Press on September 1, 2026. She lives with her husband on an island near Seattle, Washington, where she enjoys hiking, writing, sailing, and wildlife photography.

“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”

— Carl Bard

Author photos: Star Dewar (top) and Glen Taggart (bottom)