25-1506-SOW_Salinity Tag_16July2025_revised.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources (OPR) Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Conservation Division Development of a Biologging Cetacean Dorsal Fin Tag that Measures Conductivity or Salinity

Background/Overview:

The NOAA Fisheries OPR’s implements the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and provides scientific information on the health, and health trends of marine mammal populations in the wild and provides an infrastructure for response-to and investigation of marine mammal unusual mortality events. The Mid-Barataria Mississippi River Sediment Diversion Restoration Plan, Final Environmental Impact Statement, and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers permit were published in the fall of 2022, and a Record of Decision signed in December 2022. Once operational, this Diversion, due to the influx of freshwater, was determined to have significant, permanent adverse impacts on the health and survival of the Barataria Bay Estuarine Stock of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Louisiana. The Diversion would increase the flow of freshwater into Barataria Bay at the constant rate of 5,000 cfs ranging up to a maximum of 75,000 cfs causing salinity to drop below five PSU over portions of the basin and consequently leading to health impacts to dolphins from freshwater exposure. The National Marine Fisheries Service held dolphin monitoring and intervention workshops in 2023 and 2024 to determine the pre-operation and post-construction activities to monitor the impacts of the Diversion on the health of bottlenose dolphins. These workshops provided information on potential intervention/prevention strategies, adaptive management of the monitoring and response activities, and operational prevention or mitigation recommendations.

The development of a biologging cetacean dorsal fin tag that would provide salinity information as a dolphin swims through the water column was highlighted as a high priority to inform monitoring, interventions, adaptive management, and mitigation/prevention recommendations for impacted dolphins. To address data gaps, the daily (or more frequent) salinity and location information might also allow field teams the ability to find and evaluate the body condition and behavior of tagged dolphins at different salinity exposures. A secondary benefit would be that the data gained from these tag studies will inform decision-making nationally for out-of-habitat dolphins as well as for other cetaceans in low salinity situations such as after extreme weather events or dolphins trapped by construction or restoration actions. Finally, deployment of the biologging salinity tag on dolphins will contribute to the environment-observing data collection during the deployment period in both the pre-operation and post-operation periods of the Mid-Barataria Mississippi River Sediment Diversion project and be available for use with other cetacean populations.

Scope of Work

The goal of this purchase order is to develop a biologging tag that measures or infers water salinity exposures for a dolphin; archives, processes, and transmits the data products to Argos satellites; and fits into a single-pin finmount dolphin dorsal fin tag. This requires a transmittable data product to monitor conductivity or salinity in both salt and freshwater environments. The project would include the development, validation, and testing of the hardware and software platforms for a tag and the data delivery product from a small biologging tag attached to the dorsal fin of wild free-ranging bottlenose dolphins. The salinity measurement ranges must include those ranges found in bay, sound, and estuarine waters (including freshwater) as well as offshore waters. The data collected, archived, processed into products, and transmitted should include fine-scale location, time, temperature, conductivity or salinity, and possibly dive depth. In addition, the tag should have a UHF transmitter, which will allow the animal, or tag to be tracked in real-time using hand-held receivers. This project should include modification or development of hardware and software platforms ranging from data collection to data transmission using Argos. The resulting tag should be comparable in size and design to the currently available Wildlife Computers (SPOT or SPLASH) single-pin finmount dolphin dorsal fin tags. The three-year project would result in providing 16 prototype tags (3 Version I tags; 3 Version II tags, 10 Version III tags) for testing under field conditions and on wild dolphins, and 10 final tags for deployment in the field on wild free-ranging dolphins.

Tasks - The work should include the following steps/tasks:

1. Modify existing sensors or develop new sensors to provide conductivity or salinity measurements in water salinities ranging from 0-40 PSU.

a. Validate that salinity can be inferred from the conductivity readings and determine accuracy across the range of salinities and temperatures, with accuracy to +/- 1.0 to 2.0 PSU;

b. Validate that this capability would work in bay, sound, and estuarine (including freshwater) as well as oceanic waters.

c. Conduct laboratory testing of the sensor.

2. Establish data archiving and processing capabilities to provide the conductivity/salinity measurements, which may require alterations to hardware and software frameworks. Additional data that must be included in the data collection, archiving, processing, and data transmission are fine-scale temperature, location, time, salinity product as well as possibly dive depth.

3. Develop a user-programmable duty cycle for data collection including the conductivity product time series or histogram data product similar to a dive profile that can be transmitted via Fastloc GPS to Argos satellite system. The transmission should also have a user-programmable duty cycle. Data products would include time, temperature, salinity/conductivity, location, and possibly dive depth.

a. The programmable duty cycle should aim to conserve battery life and maintain required data collection, archiving, processing and transmission, striving for transmission periods through the entire 130-day battery life of the tag.

b. Measurements must be archived and processed into data (such as histograms) over the time period following the animal’s last surfacing, and then should be transmitted using a user-programmable duty cycle via Fastloc when the animal surfaces during the specific Argos window.

c. The location must be as precise as possible using technology such as the Fastloc GPS.

d. Transmitted data must include temperature, salinity product, location, time, and potential dive depth.

4. Incorporate conductivity/salinity, temperature, location, time and possibly dive depth hardware, software, and communication platforms into a tag that can be applied in a single pin finmount dorsal fin attachment for dolphins. In the field locations where the tag would be deployed, the expected lowest conductivity range will be between the 200-400 µS /cm. The depth range of the field locations will range from 1m to 100m depending upon the specific study site. Through collaboration, provide prototype tags to a field team that monitors wild dolphins in the Southeast U.S., and collaborate for field testing (not attached to dolphins) of these prototype tags with partners to determine conductivity measurement (and inferred product) in real field situations.

a. Three prototype tags (tag version I) will be needed for conductivity testing in the field (not attached to dolphins).

b. Working with partners the field-testing of the prototype tags should include exposure to a variety of salinities and water environments (turbid, etc.)

c. Tags must be equipped with a UHF transmitter, which can be enabled to send out low-power, unmodulated pings while the tag is at the surface so that the animal or the tag can be located in real-time and actively tracked using a directional antenna and receiver.

d. Fouling (including biofouling), interference, power use, and size should be minimized to ensure the battery life (130 days), minimize the impact on the animal, and ensure the accuracy of data collection.

e. The hardware and software for collection, archiving, processing, and transmitting the data product must fit into a single pin dorsal fin tag. The tag design should be similar to the Wildlife Computers SPOT or SPLASH Finmount tag in weight (~90 g), size, drag, and power used, or battery life (130 days). The tag weight must be ~90 g or less.

f. Modify as necessary post-conductivity testing and retest.

5. Through collaboration, provide prototype tags to perform wild dolphin field testing in the Southeast U.S. as part of an ongoing dolphin catch-and-release health assessment project to evaluate performance of tag.

a. Three prototype tags (tag version II) will be needed for initial testing on wild dolphins.

b. Collaborating wild dolphin field testing partners must have appropriate authorization and permits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

c. Wild dolphin field testing should include follow-up monitoring of tagged dolphins.

d. Prototype tag(s) that have passed the lab evaluations will be provided for testing performance in bay, sound, and estuarine waters to ensure usability in priority habitats, therefore this contract will require development of prototype tags for field-testing and any modifications needed to proceed to further testing.

e. Make modifications if/when needed.

f. Ten prototype tags (tag version III) will be needed for subsequent testing on wild dolphins, following the criteria above in 5b-d.

g. Make modifications if/when needed.

6. Provide final tags for use in bottlenose dolphins in bay, sound, and estuary habitats in the Southeast U.S.

a. Provide 10 final tags for use in bottlenose dolphins for field deployment.

Period of Performance Anticipated Base Year - September 30, 2025– September 29, 2026 (Subject to change/TBD) Anticipated Option Year 1 – September 30, 2026– September 29, 2027 (Subject to change/TBD) Anticipated Option Year 2 - September 30, 2027– September 29, 2028 (Subject to change/TBD)

Place of Performance The contractor will manufacture and develop the tags at their facility or an equivalent location. Field tag testing on wild dolphins shall be conducted in collaboration with authorized partners at designated Southeast U.S. locations as determined by the contractor (see Appendix 1 below for list of authorized partners).

Deliverable Schedule The contractor must deliver all completed deliverables to the Project Lead or designated points of contact immediately upon completion as specified in the contract. Depending upon the type of deliverable (e.g. data update, physical tag, etc.) deliverables will be delivered digitally via email or shared drive and/or physically mailed or hand-delivered to the researchers if they are the tag prototypes for testing. Acceptance of the deliverable will be communicated by NMFS within 15 days of receipt.

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Option year 1

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Phase 1:

Sensor hardware & Software development; Laboratory Testing

· Establishing a sensor that allows measurements in various salinities from 0 to 40 PSU

· Developing a platform to archive, package, and transmit the data to a satellite from a dolphin tag with low energy costs so it doesn't use up all the battery

· Test both of the above in a tank and/or shore-based situation

· Test both in various water qualities (turbidity, sediment disturbance, etc.)

· Revise as needed or stop if the design does not work and reconfigure the sensor Base Year

Phase 2:

Field Testing

· Package the biologging hardware/software into a small tag that fits on the dorsal fin of a dolphin

· Test tag version I in various field tests not attached to a dolphin (e.g., behind a boat, on a submerged pier, etc.)

Base Year

Phase 3:

Initial Live Dolphin Field Testing

· Test tag version II on live dolphins associated with existing permitted work; including follow-up monitoring of tagged dolphins.

· Work with permitted study to test the tags on catch-and-release bottlenose dolphins to determine the functionality of data collection and transmission as well as tag retention and battery life Option Year 1

Phase 4:

Additional Live Dolphin Field Testing

· Test tag version III on live dolphins associated with existing permitted work; including follow-up monitoring of tagged dolphins.

· Work with permitted study to test the tags on catch-and-release bottlenose dolphins to revise functionality of data collection and transmission as well as tag retention and battery life Option Year 2

Government-Furnished Resources

Description of other access or equipment requirements not already addressed above: N/A

Security Requirements None Applicable Standards Special Requirements

a. Confidentiality and Data Privacy This contract may require that service contractors have access to Privacy Information. Services contractors are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of all subjects and materials and may be required to sign and adhere to a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA).

b. Intellectual Property Rights All deliverables are the property of the U.S. Government. All documents, analyses, files (digital or other), reports, notes, and photos are to be used only by Contractor personnel assigned to this purchase order. Documents, files, and other data are to be stored exclusively on Government-owned equipment and at no point should be saved or archived on personal drives or devices. Copies are not to be disseminated to anyone outside of the NMFS or to any other contractor personnel without explicit release from the Government.

c. Section 508 Compliance Under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) as amended by P.L. 105-220 under Title IV (Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998), all Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) developed, procured, maintained and/or used under this contract shall comply with the “Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards” set forth by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also referred to as the “Access Board”) in 36 CFR Part 1194. The complete text of Section 508 Standards can be accessed at http://www.access-board.gov/ or at http://www.section508.gov.

Required Knowledge and Experience:

The contractor is required to have a proven track record in the development of single-pin biologging tags specifically designed for small cetaceans. The contractor shall possess the necessary technical expertise to design and integrate a salinity/conductivity sensor into a biologging tag. Additionally, the contractor must secure partnerships or subcontractors with the appropriate authorization and permits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to conduct field testing of prototype tags on wild dolphins within the United States.

Appendix 1 – Authorized Partners Permitted under the MMPA to Conduct Bottlenose Dolphin Health Assessments in the U.S.

1. Dr. Randy Wells, (rwells@mote.org), Sarasota Dolphin Research Program; and

2. Dr. Cynthia Smith (cynthia.smith@nmmpfoundation.org), and Mr. Eric Zolman (eric.zolman@nmmpfoundation.org) at the National Marine Mammal Foundation.

Technical Project Lead: Deborah Fauquier Contracting Officer’s Representative: Natasha Thieman