Normandeau is well known for its ability to undertake complex field programs and to mobilize personnel, team members, and necessary equipment to complete projects on time and on budget. Our field teams can mobilize quickly and appropriately sized for the scope of a project. Our teams are supervised by Field Operation Supervisors with decades of experience collecting samples from terrestrial, aquatic, and marine environments. We design collection programs and perform sampling to exacting standards based on both regulatory and client needs.
Normandeau maintains an extensive fleet of vessels, vehicles, and other equipment necessary to the successful implementation of monitoring programs. This inventory includes 37-foot trawlers, 42-foot diesel research vessels, 25-foot high-speed research vessels, a coring barge, numerous workboats ranging in size from 18 to 22 feet, and specially equipped electrofishing boats. Our inventory of field sampling gear includes numerous types of fish nets and traps (e.g., gill nets, fyke nets, otter trawls, and seines), backpack electrofishing units, benthos samplers, and several types of current meters, YSI water quality testing instruments, sediment grab samplers, gravity corer, vibracorer, and global positioning systems (GPS).
Normandeau operates three of the largest biological laboratories in the northeast, with several personnel who hold Taxonomic Certification by the Society for Freshwater Science for eastern Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (Group 2) at the genus level. Our labs specialize in the analysis of freshwater, estuarine, and marine macroinvertebrates; plankton; and ichthyoplankton samples. This level of capability is rare in the biological laboratory field. The combined strength of all three laboratories provides our clients with extensive expertise and provides assurance of compliance with all project schedules.
Our laboratories consist of over 4,000 square feet of work space. For major processing efforts, additional space and equipment are available to quickly and efficiently expand the staff. Our equipment includes dissecting and compound scopes, Sartorius and O'Haus analytical balances, drying ovens, a muffle furnace, inverted scopes for phytoplankton analysis, micro-projectors for fish scale reading, sample splitters, and micrometers.
Our technical data processing group has extensive experience with data management involving long-term environmental monitoring databases. Normandeau Associates provides robust data handling capabilities through experienced programmers using SAS system software. Our experienced staff will develop project-specific software tools for data entry verification, quality control checks, data conversion to required formats, and processing to create the necessary file structures. The SAS system allows our data analysts to integrate data products from various sources and to generate data that can be readily imported into other data analysis systems.
Our commitment to high standards for data integrity is supported by a rigorous standard operating procedure for data processing. Following data entry or acquisition of electronic deliverables an additional QC inspection will be completed. This includes project-specific check routines based on logical checks and random sampling of records for comparison between database records and laboratory datasheets.
