Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a remarkable Canadian, Mr. Herb Hilgenberg, a private citizen of Burlington who provides a titanic public service every day.
Fifteen years ago this retired business executive and self-taught weather forecaster began an interesting hobby that quickly grew. For the last decade and a half Herb Hilgenberg has spent 10 hours a day, seven days a week, providing personalized marine weather forecasts to sailors and commercial vessels on the Atlantic passages from his home office, free of charge.
He uses the Internet, two computers, two satellite dishes, four radios and a fax machine, and predicts the weather with an accuracy rate of 95%. He is so accurate that as many as 90 commercial ships and sea-going yachts check in with Herb each day. The U.S. national weather service and the U.S. navy use his information and techniques.
American and Canadian search and rescue agents have asked Herb for assistance in finding missing vessels and the Canadian Coast Guard nominated Herb for a national search and rescue award.