CSA’s corporate resources are described in the following sections:

Quality Management

The complexity of environmental data demands a systematic quality management process in order to provide decision-makers with confidence in the quality of the data.  Support for CSA’s corporate commitment to our Quality Management System is an integral part of the job responsibilities of each CSA employee.  CSA maintains strict quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures for field sampling, laboratory analyses, data management, and deliverables preparation to ensure high standards for every project.  Subcontractors involved in CSA projects are also required to operate under CSA's Quality Management System, which includes stringent QA/QC procedures.

From the time a project is conceptualized until the final deliverables are completed, all steps are carefully preplanned, scheduled, coordinated, and monitored by both a Project Manager and a Project QA/QC Officer to ensure project quality.  CSA places priority on each step of our Quality Management System because we are aware that our services and products reflect investments of significant time and money and are used by clients and regulators for important environmental management decisions.

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Staff

CSA’s Science Division is staffed by a diverse group of highly skilled environmental science professionals who provide expertise concerning the following:

  • Marine biology
  • Physical and biological oceanography
  • Fish ecology
  • Environmental impacts
  • Endangered species
  • Marine mammals, birds, and turtles
  • Biostatistics
  • Marine habitat restoration
  • GIS
  • Coastal zone management
  • Underwater photography
  • Remote sensing data interpretation

The Science Division is supported by a Field Operations Division that provides technical capabilities concerning biological and geotechnical sampling, remote sensing instrumentation, survey navigation and processing, logistic support, and dive operations.  Additionally, CSA has established a broad network of contract professionals to augment in-house staffing and provide project-specific technical and analytical support.

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Facilities

CSA’s parent company, Continental Shelf Associates, Inc., has recently built a new facility in Stuart, Florida that houses CSA, OSI, and TSC.  Our new home includes state‑of-the-art office space to accommodate the professional staff and purpose-built shop and electronics laboratory space required to warehouse, maintain, and support our equipment for projects requiring active field services.  Our Internet and web-based services are also state-of-the-art and supply our customers with real-time ftp-site capabilities to monitor ongoing activities for each project, if required.

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Geographic Information Systems

CSA specializes in a wide range of GIS services, backed with years of experience and expertise.  CSA provides GIS services, including mapping and cartography, natural resource planning, site selection, pollution analysis, remote sensing, and emergency preparedness planning.  Perhaps more importantly, CSA has harnessed the powers of GIS for environmental planning, field surveys, data management, and documentation to ensure that complex scientific issues are appropriately addressed and easily understood for informed natural resource decisions.  GIS is an important tool that is used to support and strengthen our services for our clients.  CSA’s applications of GIS include the following:

  • Exclusionary mapping
  • Project planning
  • Experimental design
  • Site selection
  • Desktop studies
  • 3-D modeling
  • Remote sensing
  • Program coordination
  • Database management
  • Map production

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Library and Information Services

CSA has in-house, specialized library services provided by a full-time CSA Marine Information Specialist who has more than 30 years experience.  This extensive in-house library capability contributes to the excellence of CSA’s comprehensive environmental and socioeconomic documents and plays an integral part in projects that require extensive, comprehensive literature searches and data synthesis.  These projects have withstood scientific scrutiny and received regulatory agency approvals worldwide, and include Environmental Impact Studies (EISs) and Environmental Assessments (EAs) under NEPA guidelines in the U.S. and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) under World Bank guidelines and regulatory requirements of other nations. 

Library and Information Services resources include searches of the Dialog® databank that provides 1.4 billion unique records of key information in more than 900 databases, including Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts, Biosis Previews, Chemical Abstracts Search, Dissertation Abstracts, Geoarchive, Georef, Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts, Oceanic Abstracts, Scisearch, and Zoological Record.  The CSA library houses more than 60,000 books, technical reports, and reprints in addition to an extensive collection of gray literature, governmental publications, and electronic resources.  Materials not available in the CSA library are easily secured through the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) interlibrary loan system, of which CSA is one of 57,000 member libraries.  The OCLC Worldcat database, a compilation of the holdings of the member libraries, is the most comprehensive bibliographic resource in the world. 

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Equipment

CSA specializes in providing our customers with state-of-the-art equipment systems designed specifically for program objectives.  We specialize in understanding our clients’ needs, both technically and fiscally, and in providing high-quality scientific services supported with proven field capabilities.  Our staff selects and customizes ocean instrumentation to optimize the sampling strategy required by a specific project.  Our philosophy of providing proven equipment and instrumentation supports a unique turn-key service for coastal, nearshore, and offshore consulting requirements.

CSA owns and maintains a large and diverse equipment pool and as well as its own coastal research vessels.  We also have long-standing relationships with supply vessel, barge, and tug companies worldwide.  Our specialized equipment and software supports the following coastal and offshore activities:

  • Benthic environmental monitoring
    • Video and still-camera systems
    • Specialized monitoring equipment
  • Coastal surveying
    • Hydrographic survey equipment
    • Water quality sondes and sensors
    • Specialized survey software
  • Oceanographic monitoring
    • Wave, tide, and current recording equipment
  • Geotechnical sampling
    • Coring and sediment sampling devices
  • Remote sensing surveys
    • Side-scan sonar and subbottom profiling devices
  • GIS software
  • Full ARC GIS capabilities with trained scientists

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Scientific, Operational, and Commercial Diving

Dive operations are a very important component of CSA’s services and an intricate part of many of our field sampling programs.  CSA provides scientific, operational, and commercial SCUBA diving services.  All divers are certified in SCUBA by an internationally recognized organization and trained as specialty divers for utilizing enriched air (Nitrox).  Additionally, all divers are trained in American Red Cross cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid and experienced with federal dive safety practices (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration [OSHA], U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [USACE], and Association of Diving Contractor [ADC] Standards).  CSA's commitment to safety and quality in our dive practices is demonstrated by our superior safety record and customer satisfaction.  We have prepared and conducted Dive Safety Plans for the USACE, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, and numerous international oil and gas operators.  CSA also maintains a network of professional commercial divers to provide project-specific operational support and deepwater capabilities.

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