A New Bedford Company, AIS Inc., has been approved by NOAA Fisheries to provide at-sea and dockside monitoring services for the 2013 fishing year, which begins on May 1, 2013.

AIS is located at 89 Water St., and provides trained and certified inspectors and observers for maritime activities requiring certification of compliance with environmental regulations. According to the company's web site they also collects data for use by federal, state, municipal and other government agencies.

All told, four companies were approved for at-sea monitoring with three of those, including AIS, also approved for dockside work. the other companies are based in Essex, Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and New Britain, Conn.

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