CSA International, Inc.’s Coastal and Ocean Sciences business line provides a wide range of services for Federal, State, regional, county, and local governments as well as for a variety of commercial/industrial customers. The project locations for these programs and services range from the intertidal zone and estuarine environments to the open ocean.
Projects and services include:
- Biological, geological, chemical, and physical oceanographic data collection;
- Reef, hard bottom, and seagrass surveys;
- Environmental assessment and impact statements;
- Environmental impact and compliance monitoring;
- Marine habitat mapping;
- Site clearance surveys;
- Hydrographic and bathymetric surveys;
- Data and literature reviews; and
- Other services associated with beach restoration, borrow areas, ocean dredged material disposal sites, harbor and channel dredging, and marine mining projects.
Staff comprising the Coastal and Ocean Sciences business line includes skilled professionals with educational backgrounds and experience in marine biology, fisheries ecology, oceanography, ocean geology, coastal zone and environmental management, biological and chemical sample collection, and underwater photography and video data collection. These staff are experienced in working under difficult physical conditions in both nearshore and offshore environments and have access to a wide range of survey and sampling equipment as well as a fleet of small vessels to provide rapid response in conducting beach and nearshore surveys.
We have made providing environmental services associated with beach nourishment a priority, with recent projects completed or underway in Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Sarasota Counties, Florida. These baseline assessments and monitoring programs, which can last up to several years, are often conducted under subcontract to coastal engineering firms.
The Coastal and Ocean Sciences business line also offers desktop and field survey services that integrate biological, chemical, geological, physical, and socioeconomic information for domestic and international projects. These services, which can culminate in the production of environmental assessment documents or environmental impact statements, may include many of the following components:
- Assessment of project area baseline conditions, a review of existing scientific literature and relevant data, and completion of characterization reports;
- Determination of potential primary and secondary impacts of preferred actions and alternatives to assist in evaluating potential environmental consequences and determine the preferred alternative based on sound science and resource management strategies;
- Development of mitigation options to compensate for significant project impacts;
- Design and implementation of habitat restoration to rehabilitate coral, hard bottom, seagrass, oyster, and other habitats damaged and/or at risk from proposed actions, accidents, and natural events; and
- Monitoring to determine effects of activities on the marine environment and the efficacy of mitigation measures and habitat restoration.
