Welcome to A.I.S. Observers, Inc.

Applying AIS’s marine experience to the environmental studies area, AIS offers our field sampling expertise to companies and organizations in search of experienced seagoing biologists. AIS biologists can collect biological samples and record oceanographic data while your in-house staff can concentrate on sampling design, data analysis, report preparation and project management. However, if you have data analysis, report preparation and project management needs, AIS can handle those requirements as well.

AIS has years of at-sea experience collecting biological and environmental data for the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Army Corp of Engineers, the state of Massachusetts and environmental engineering companies. AIS started in 1988 collecting marine research data and has grown into servicing federal, state and private environmental research needs.

Companies conducting research in the marine environment know that managing a field sampling project can be difficult and expensive. Some of the problems companies experience are:

Staffing the project with the right combination or report preparation experience and sea sampling skills.
Hiring full-time staff for temporary or short term projects.
Re-deploying or putting sampling staff on travel as new projects come and go.
Having to pay full-time sampling staff when weather and sea conditions prevent sampling.
Paying senior scientists to conduct sea sampling, when they might be more productive managing projects and preparing reports.

By using AIS field sampling capabilities, companies can setup field studies quickly and maintain a sampling scheduled optimized for their study needs. No need to hire biologists for field work and not be able to utilize them 100% of their time. Our biologists are ready when you are. AIS can supply individual biologists to round out a sampling crew or a team of biologists to conduct your sampling regimes. Our staff is available for day, night, weekend and holiday sampling schedules.

AIS provides clients at-sea field sampling personnel who are experienced in collecting data at sea. They are certified as fisheries observers and endangered species observers by the National Marine Fisheries Service. We also have biologists certified as dredge observers by the Army Corp of Engineers. All our sampling personnel have at least a BS or MS in marine biology or environmental science.

We have staff experienced in boat handling, navigation and gear deployment. For larger projects, our contacts with the fishing industry allow us to charter commercial fishing vessels for offshore research and monitoring studies. The same contacts and knowledge of the fisheries communities can be a valuable asset when projects require interaction with the fishing industry

Backing up our field expertise is our data management staff. Our team includes knowledgeable database designers experienced in building databases in both Access and Oracle and web developers for data visualization. Our data entry staff enters research data, runs auditing programs, analyses errors to maintain a high data quality level necessary for scientific analysis.

We retain a staff of senior biologists proficient in preparing environmental impact and assessment reports, specializing in benthic and pelagic community analysis.

While we concentrate on providing field sampling to companies conducting marine and estuarine research, AIS can deliver the full range of services from recording data at sea, to data preparation through to report preparation.

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