Episode 362: Bert Terhart

Bert terHart, self-described as 'soldier, sailor, scientist, adventurer, serial entrepreneur and author', just seems to have a knack for knocking off the impossible. A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Explorer in Residence for the BC Historical Society, Founder of the Canadian Interactive Waterways Initiative, CEO of LeadBrain.ai, and author of, among others, the children's book 'Sir Salty Goes to Sea', Bert has sailed solo, non-stop around the world, into the Bering Sea, and out to the Aleutian Islands all in an effort to follow in the wake of some of the world's greatest explorers and cartographers. In the same vein, he paddled solo, across Canada from the Pacific to Atlantic Oceans covering more than 7800kms by foot and canoe. What's coming next is even more extreme. Or crazy. Bert terHart has had a life-long passion for the oceans and oceanography. With advanced degrees in math, physics and physical oceanography, he has studied the role the world's oceans and coastal seas play in moderating and regulating climate, nutrient productivity and pollution distributions, and salmon migration. A career in academics, however, was not to be. Software engineering and business drew him away from the formal world of academia. Bert went on to create software and technical tools used by health care professionals in Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and Australia ultimately helping in the diagnosis and treatment of tens of thousands of patients. His passion for the oceans has translated into more than 50,000 miles of blue-water sailing, almost all of it solo, and a keen advocacy for the citizen scientist in all of us. His programming and business skills have been sought out by the universities, professionals, and environmentally responsible businesses and corporations in Canada and the US. His exploits have been featured both nationally and internationally on TV and in print. He's a frequent speaker to local business groups, libraries, museums, schools, and adventurers of every ilk.