Purchase Order 1333MF25P0143

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $49,999.60 firm fixed-price purchase order to Hector J Ruiz Torres, doing business as HJR Reefscaping, on September 23, 2025, to support shallow water reef fish survey services for NOAA's Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Puerto Rico. This Total Small Business Set-Aside contract runs through December 31, 2026, and tasks the contractor with providing vessels, captains, and observers to conduct fishery-independent surveys using hook and line fishing equipment at depths of 20–50 meters across Puerto Rico waters. The scope includes completing up to 70 sampling grids island-wide, deploying and retrieving fishing equipment, collecting biological samples, and coordinating stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Video deployments with National Coral Reef Monitoring Program divers to generate catch-per-unit effort data and length composition information for managed reef fish species including snappers, groupers, triggerfish, parrotfish, and jacks.

HJR Reefscaping, a minority-owned, Hispanic American-owned sole proprietorship with deep expertise in marine ecosystem research and monitoring in Puerto Rico, is well-positioned to execute this work. The company has an established track record supporting NOAA's fisheries science missions through prior contracts involving deep-water and shallow-water reef fish surveys, with performance periods typically spanning one to five years. Sampling activities under this contract will be conducted between May and October to account for hurricane season in the Caribbean, with NOAA providing S-BRUV equipment, non-territorial permits, and sampling protocols while the contractor obtains territorial sampling permits and supplies vessels, cameras, GPS equipment, and observers for each sampling trip.