The market for the specialized, environmental monitoring instruments made by Green Eyes isn't large, but it's growing – especially in Asia. That's given the Easton-based company a golden opportunity to thrive.

"We don't have a lot of competitors," said Director Vincent Kelly. More than half of Green Eyes' work this year has been for clients based overseas – particularly in China, he said.

Rapid industrialization in that country has created an increased need to measure environmental impacts such as changes in water quality. That's where Green Eyes comes in.

The company's products include devices that monitor nutrient levels in water, systems that protect sensors from biofouling – that is, contamination or damage by organisms such as algae or barnacles – and devices to measure sediment erosion.

Green Eyes grew out of oceanographic research being done at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge, where Green Eyes spent several years incubating after it was founded – on paper at least – in 2006, Kelly said.

In its lean first years, the company pulled in between $100,000 and $300,000 in revenue. But in 2015, after expanding its product line to include nutrient monitors, Green Eyes brought in about $750,000 and expected to draw similar revenues for 2016 and 2017, Kelly said.

The company's growth was bolstered by two years of support from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program, which funds research partnerships between businesses and University System of Maryland institutions, starting in 2007. Green Eyes also received an award of more than $72,000 from the Maryland Technology Development Corp., or TEDCO, in 2010.

Additional funding came from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the federal Small Business Innovation Research program.

"Every piece of funding we got was critical," Kelly said. "Without that, we wouldn't have made it. Our margins were very thin."

This month, Kelly is headed back to Asia for the Oceanography International China conference, where he'll discuss his experiences in the industry and what he's learned.

Customers now include environmental researchers and consultants both non-profit and for-profit in Florida, South Carolina, Alaska, Italy, South Korea, Japan and China.

"Things are looking up," he said. "For a small company we have a lot of products. That provides some insurance." Green Eyes' equipment sales are sporadic by nature – the company may only sell a few dozen instruments per year so offering a variety of products helps keep revenue stable, Kelly said.

"I'm probably as optimistic about the future as ever," he said.

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