Dispatch 4: Who Is In Charge Here?     Print

Luc Rainville

July 29, 2007

	Captain Stewart Klebert
	Chief scientist Sarah Zimmermann (left) and co-chief scientist Jane Eert (right)
	Sarah and Jane discussing the sampling plan in the meeting room.

Stewart Klebert is the captain of the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. He lives in Halifax and has been with the Coast Guard for 35 years. The captain is in charge of the operations and safety of the whole ship.

The chief scientist is Sarah Zimmermann, helped by Jane Eert as co-chief scientist. The role of the Sarah and Jane is to coordinate the science, make the decisions about which station to go to, what sampling methods we use, who gets to collect what samples, etc. In other words, they are trying to balance the needs of every scientist with the time and ship constraints. It's not an easy task when we all want more samples and more time to get data! There are so many different scientific programs taking place on the ship.

Both Jane and Sarah are from the Institute of Ocean Sciences, on Vancouver Island, in Canada. Sarah had been leading the expedition in the Beaufort Sea since 2004 and Jane has been sailing on the Louis for the past 8 years. Both are primarily interested in the physical oceanography component of the expedition although with strong interests in Chemistry and other disciplines.