Sea-Bird Electronics, Inc.

Sea-Bird Electronics, Inc., doing business as Sea-Bird Scientific, manufactures high-precision oceanographic sensors, calibration equipment, and maintenance services for federal oceanographic research and environmental monitoring operations, operating as a prime contractor on full-and-open delivery orders and indefinite delivery contracts with no SBA set-asides. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Veralto Corporation, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with additional performance capability at Newport, Rhode Island and customer sites aboard NOAA research vessels.

Sea-Bird's customer concentration is extreme and deliberate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accounts for 923 of 1,579 total awards (58% of award count) and $152.3 million of $177.2 million combined potential value (86% of dollars), establishing NOAA as the dominant customer by an order of magnitude. The Department of the Navy Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command ranks second with 82 awards and $15.2 million, followed by the Office of Naval Research (59 awards, $1.5 million), Naval Sea Systems Command (32 awards, $1.3 million), and the U.S. Geological Survey (33 awards, $669 thousand). These five customers account for 73% of all awards and 96% of combined potential value. Sea-Bird serves 45 distinct federal agencies across the portfolio, but NOAA concentration is decisive.

Sea-Bird's core capability set centers on manufacturing and field servicing of conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors, optical dissolved oxygen sensors, fluorometers, temperature loggers, Niskin water-sampling bottles, nitrate analyzers, and calibration/repair services for these instruments across NOAA's research fleet and monitoring networks. Representative prime work includes a $2.363 billion delivery order (Feb 2024) for TAO subsurface temperature, pressure, and conductivity sensors to replace aging units; a $701.5 million delivery order (Jun 2023) for fleet-wide calibration services and wet pluggable connector upgrades across the NOAA research vessel fleet; a $384.6 million delivery order (Jun 2024) for sea-bird equipment supporting marine operations; and a $1.488 billion delivery order (Aug 2024) for instrument calibration services. Smaller recurring orders for parts, calibration, and annual maintenance are issued across NOAA's regional science centers and sanctuary systems. Navy work includes a $127.8 million order (Jun 2023) for submarine seawater sensors and $96.3 million (Apr 2023) for seawater sensors to the Naval Sea Systems Command; a $81 million order (Aug 2024) for optics equipment recalibration to Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. EPA ordered $93.8 thousand (Aug 2026) for spectrophotometer and sensors for the research vessel Lake Guardian. Work spans NOAA's fleet vessels by name—Okeanos Explorer, Ronald H. Brown, Henry Bigelow, Reuben Lasker, Nancy Foster—and regional centers including the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory.

Sea-Bird holds the primary indefinite delivery contract relationship with NOAA: a $45.7 million IDC (DOCEA133M15CQ0039, awarded Sep 2025, expiring Sep 2035) for equipment, parts, repair, upgrade, and maintenance services, against which 429 task orders ($29.9 million combined potential value) have been placed. Secondary NOAA IDCs include DOCAB133F09CQ0054 (43 task orders, $2.2 million) and 1305M225D0032 (28 task orders, $3.8 million). With the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Sea-Bird holds a $2.5 million IDC (awarded Aug 2024, expiring Aug 2029) for optics equipment maintenance and repair and a $1.5 million IDC (awarded Apr 2024, expiring Apr 2029) for CTD and underwater bioluminescence assessment tool servicing and repair. Task orders under these vehicles represent the bulk of Sea-Bird's order flow—recurring, steady-state procurement of calibration and maintenance services for instruments already in federal inventory.

Activity has remained steady through the recent period: 57 awards in 2022, 58 in 2023, 70 in 2024, 45 in 2025, and 30 in the first nine months of 2026 (through Sep 30). The recent slowdown likely reflects measurement-lag and seasonal bunching rather than business decline. Only 16 awards (combined potential value $2.8 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months—a minimal recompete cliff. Most delivery orders run 6 to 18 months and roll continuously under the parent IDC vehicles.

Prime work dominates: 1,570 of 1,579 awards (99%) are prime contracts or IDCs; only 9 awards (1%) are subcontract positions. In the Service Contract Inventory, Sea-Bird appears only as a named subcontractor, reporting 0.4 FTEs in FY2024 and 0.1 FTEs in FY2025 across two records—a negligible service-contract footprint, consistent with Sea-Bird's role as an equipment manufacturer and field-service provider rather than a staffing or professional-services contractor. SCI captures only service contracts above $150 thousand and excludes goods and products, so the two SCI records likely represent isolated calibration or consulting elements within larger delivery orders; the vast majority of Sea-Bird's federal revenue flows as purchase orders and delivery orders for sensors and spare parts, which fall outside SCI scope.

NAICS concentration reflects the business: 1,203 awards fall under Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing (NAICS 334519), 64 under Other Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance, 55 under Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing. Top PSC codes are Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity Measuring and Controlling Instruments (194 awards), Laboratory Equipment and Supplies (172), and Maintenance/Repair/Rebuild of Laboratory Equipment (112). Sea-Bird competes exclusively on full-and-open, non-set-aside procurement, relying on proprietary instrument designs, specialized calibration expertise, and NOAA's historical reliance on Sea-Bird equipment as the de facto standard for oceanographic observation.

Sub-award activity is minimal: the source names Oregon State University and Atlantic Diving Supply, Inc. as primes under whom Sea-Bird appears as a subcontractor, typically supplying specific sensor models or repair services embedded in larger oceanographic research initiatives. This posture—99% prime, equipment-focused, single-customer dominant, recurring maintenance and calibration orders under standing IDVs—positions Sea-Bird as a specialized, high-margin supplier to a captive market (NOAA's fleet and monitoring networks) with limited competitive exposure outside oceanographic instrumentation niches within the Navy and USGS.