The Tyee
By Brendan Jones
June 28th, 2024
As a student at Vermont’s Middlebury College, Lea LeGardeur loved being on the water. Her diminutive size, booming voice and natural ability with the rudder made her a fit for the coxswain position with the Middlebury men’s rowing team. She spent 2 1/2 years steering the group.
“I got accustomed to spending time with guys twice my size.”
Which proved an asset for LeGardeur, who, after teaching geography at Middlebury, decided to commercial fish in Alaska.
LeGardeur’s break came when she discovered the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, or ALFA, based in the small fishing town of Sitka, Alaska. The organization had an extensive record of fighting foreign fishing, trawling and depletion of resources. ALFA had recently secured a grant to fund its Crew Training Program, or CTP.