Cascadia Research Collective

Cascadia Research Collective, doing business as Cascadia Research, a tax-exempt nonprofit marine research organization based in Olympia, Washington, executes federal contracts and grants as a prime recipient (94% of awards) and subcontractor, delivering marine mammal research, stranding response operations, and cetacean population monitoring to civilian and defense agencies. The organization competes in full-and-open solicitations across the federal research and environmental science landscape; no set-aside designations apply to its footprint.

Cascadia's capability portfolio centers on cetacean photo-identification, marine mammal stranding and entanglement response, behavioral and population abundance research, and field-based data collection for endangered species management. Recent representative contracts include a $250,000 firm-fixed-price purchase order from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for gray whale photo identification services running through October 2027, a $116,902 contract from Naval Facilities Engineering Command for research on behavioral responses of whales to low-frequency active sonar under the Living Marine Resources program, and a $71,100 sole-source NOAA contract for gray whale identification and data matching. On the grant side, Cascadia received a $204,868 project grant from NASA's Shared Services Center (CFDA 43.001) effective May 2026 through May 2030 to execute a balanced science program aligned with National Academies guidance, and a $133,847 grant from NOAA under the Marine Mammal Data Program (CFDA 11.439) effective January 2026 for large whale entanglement response operations and data collection across the Pacific Northwest. Grant activity spans NOAA's Marine Mammal Data Program and Broad Agency Announcement (CFDA 11.015), the Office of Naval Research, and NASA, with work focused on humpback, blue, fin, killer, and false killer whale research; harbor seal harassment assessment; and regional stranding network coordination.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward NOAA, which accounts for 99 awards carrying $4.6 million in combined potential value—64% of the 80% coverage slice from the top customer count ranking. The Department of the Navy's Naval Facilities Engineering Command anchors the second-largest dollar concentration at $5.3 million across five awards, followed by Naval Sea Systems Command at $1.8 million across three awards. The Office of Naval Research adds six awards focused on beaked whale space-use dynamics and cetacean tagging research. Activity runs relatively flat year over year—five awards in 2022, five in 2023, four in 2024, six in 2025, and four awarded through mid-2026—with only six awards (combined potential value $250,000) reaching ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, signaling stable recompete exposure rather than cliff risk.

Cascadia serves as a subcontractor under two primes. HDR Environmental, Operations and Construction, Inc. engaged Cascadia in April 2026 and July 2025 for Hawaii marine species monitoring and architecture/engineering services under Marine Species Monitoring contracts supporting the Commander Pacific Fleet. Cascadia also subcontracts to Stanford University and Oregon State University on grants: Cascadia provides vessel and field operations support on Stanford's Office of Naval Research-funded archival tag deployment project for blue and humpback whales (multiple sub-awards in 2024–2025), and participates in Oregon State's baseline cetacean and seabird data collection work for offshore wind energy planning off Northern California and Oregon.

Cascadia maintains a named for-profit subsidiary, Cascadia Scientific Services LLC, structured as a small business joint venture limited liability company. The parent organization's award portfolio spans 155 total awards since 1989, with combined potential value of $12.9 million against combined obligated dollars of $26 million, reflecting grant-funded activity where full project budgets are obligated upfront despite lower reported ceiling values. The vendor's primary NAICS concentration sits in 541710 (Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services) and related research-and-development categories, with PSC coding centered on special studies and analysis for animal and fisheries resources, natural resource conservation, and marine fisheries basic research.