Statement of Work_revised Amd 0002.docx

Statement of Work National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) Habitat Conservation Division (HCD) Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Field Office Super Typhoon Sinlaku Reef Impact Assessments

RFQ Number: 1333MF26Q0044

I. BACKGROUND

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) is responsible for the management, conservation, and protection of living marine resources within the United States (U.S.) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Pacific Islands Region (PIR) includes waters surrounding American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Hawaii, and the Pacific Remote Island Areas.

On 14 to 19 April, Super Typhoon Sinlaku passed over the CNMI bringing extensive devastation to the natural resources of the area. To begin recovery of the reef habitat damaged during the storm, PIRO would like to procure the services of a vendor to provide a Super Typhoon Sinlaku Impact Assessment (SIA). Via this SIA, PIRO proposes to build upon a nearshore impact assessment led by PIRO in 2023 in response to the damage caused by typhoon Mawar on Guam. The 2026 SIA requires larger survey area and design, and more quantitative and statistically driven data analysis and reporting. The SIA will build upon the Mawar study, and expand the previous methodologies, to include surveys of an estimated 10 priority sites within the Saipan Lagoon, and another 15 sites adjacent to beaches and reef flats off of Saipan and Tinian.

The early removal of marine debris following disasters like Super Typhoon Sinlaku will result in an immediate benefit to reef health and stability as debris often continues to cause damage with shifting waves, currents, and tides. Similarly, the long-term stabilization of corals can also help to maintain key habitats for reef organisms including fish and invertebrates while improving the ability of shallow reefs to attenuate waves and reduce impacts to shorelines. Impact assessments are needed to inform these extremely important management decisions and, given the fragile nature of corals and particularly coral tissues, these decisions need to be made quickly to maximize the survival potential of broken and at-risk corals.

The full list of priority sites will be developed through a combination of factors including: preexisting survey locations with historical data, key-informant (i.e., local knowledge) recommendations, and mining of available storm severity information. The final list of sites will be developed through coordination with local managers, and through a quick participatory mapping effort with resource users, as part of the purchase order. Field methods will mayinclude snorkel and/or SCUBA surveys, likely via georeferenced free-swims, that include quantitative information related to the presence of marine debris, damage assessments and stabilizing potential for coral communities (including listed species), and identification of other storm impacts. The full list of field survey methods will also be finalized through coordination with local managers as part of the purchase order. In addition, the Vendor will lead a coral stabilization quantitative survey effort at a minimum of 5 of the top-priority sites identified during the survey process in coordination with the project team. Stabilization activities may happen following completion of the survey effort, or may be integrated immediately after surveys are completed should the project team agree that emergency stabilization should occur immediately to avoid additional damage to broken and adjacent coral communities.

Figure 1 - Example of results from Guam Mawar 2023 surveys.

This is a firm-fixed price non-personal service order to support permitting, field logistics and operations, desktop analysis, data management, and reporting. The Project Leader (PL) will be responsible for the overseeing project activity and will work with the Vendor to generate scheduling information as appropriate.

II. GOALS AND OBJECTIVE

Develop an impact assessment, including quantitative georeferenced data and reporting, regarding marine debris and coral impacts associated with Super Typhoon Sinlaku in the nearshore waters of Saipan and Tinian, CNMI. The project objectives for this study include contracted support to:

1. Build a project team that includes local and federal partners.

2. Ensure all environmental compliance requirements are addressed

3. Develop methods and a comprehensive survey design that can inform and meet the needs of local and federal stakeholders and managers.

4. Identify priority sites and rank them based on safety, availability capacity, and potential contribution to future management.

5. Perform field surveys with the project team.

6. Perform coral stabilization quantitative surveys at priority sites. This may occur before or after reporting is completed.

7. Report out in near real-time as needed to inform marine debris project decisions and develop a full report to inform both long-term debris removal, coral stabilization, and coral restoration prioritization.

The Vendor will need to collect a combination of in situ information (e.g., marine debris metrics and coral status and health), and may perform desktop analysis (e.g., wind/wave exposure and storm track diagnostics) to help us better understand the impacts at each site. As part of the analysis, the sites will then need to be compared against each other to come up with both a debris removal and coral stabilization ranking to help managers prioritize response actions.

III. GENERAL PROVISIONS & DELIVERABLES

The Vendor shall furnish necessary personnel, material, equipment, services, vehicles, and vessels (except as otherwise specified), to perform the tasks and deliverables identified in Section IV.

Vendor shall ensure that documents and deliverables provided under this performance work statement (PWS) are compatible with portable document format (PDF), Microsoft WORD, and/or Microsoft EXCEL.

IV. List of Tasks & Deliverables The Vendor shall work with the PL and/or PT to perform the following tasks:

Task 1.0: Coordination and Logistics - The Vendor shall coordinate with local partners to finalize the project team, site prioritization, and field methods for the impact assessment. The Vendor shall also coordinate with the PL to ensure all environmental compliance requirements are met.

Deliverables:

Task 2.0: Field Surveys - The Vendor shall survey at least 25 priority lagoon and reef sites around Saipan and Tinian, to inform the Super Typhoon Sinlaku reef impact assessment.

Deliverables:

Task 3.0: Data Management and Near Real-Time Data Sharing

Deliverable 3.0: Data Entry and QA/QC - ensure that all raw data and data products meet quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) requirements, and are formatted and cataloged to meet all of the NOAA Fisheries (i.e., the NMFS Enterprise Data Management Program (InPort)) and the NOAA Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) requirements for data submission within the required deadlines for data of each type.

Qualitative data within 1 week of collection. Quantitative data within federal guidelines.

Near Real-Time Data sharing - ensure all data are available and that all quantitative data submissions occur on schedule to meet federal requirements.

Within one (1) year

Task 4.0: Data Analysis and Reporting - The Vendor shall perform data analysis and develop a final report that integrates the latest science and thinking within the field of tropical cyclone impact assessments.

Task 5.0: Project Partner Updates

IV. ADMINISTRATION

The following is a list of project officials that will be associated with managing this PWS:

PIRO HCD Project Leader (PL) – Steve McKagan E-Mail Address – Steven.McKagan@noaa.gov Mailing Address – PO Box 249 GRB, Saipan MP, 96950 Telephone Number – (670) 285-7908

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) – John Peschon E-Mail Address - John.Peschon@noaa.gov Mailing Address – 1845 Wasp Boulevard, Building 176. Honolulu, HI 96818 Telephone Number – (808) 725-5111

B. Confidentiality and Data Privacy This purchase order may require that services Vendors have access to Privacy Information. Service Vendors are responsible for maintaining confidentiality of all subjects and materials and may be required to sign and adhere to a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA).

If the Vendor chooses to continue developing the model using GIS tools, they will be granted access to NOAA’s ArcGIS Online portal to develop and test the model and store all products within a NOAA managed platform. Access to the NOAA portal will require the Vendors to obtain @NOAA.gov email addresses for access and complete all of the associated training requirements and follow all of the associated rules of conduct.

C. Required Training

· NOAA IT security (required for all Vendors)

· Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment Prevention and Response Training IAW NAM 1330-52.222-70(b)(6) (required for all Vendors, Vendor-provided)

· Records Management 101 (required for all Vendors) D. Period of Performance The period of performance is June 15, 2026 (or date of award) - April 30, 2027.

V. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All deliverables are the property of the U.S. Government. All source code, documents, analyses, files (digital or other), reports, notes and photos are to be used only by Vendor personnel assigned to this purchase order. Documents, files and other data are to be stored within NOAA Google Apps for Government. At the end of the period of performance all project data and deliverables must be expunged from Vendor owned equipment. Copies are not to be disseminated to anyone outside of the NMFS or to any other Vendor personnel without explicit release from the NMFS Project Leader.

image1.png