FBO_1300636268_Sole_Source.pdf

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

Wildlife Computers Satellite Tags

1300636268

BACKGROUND

As principal investigators in at Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport (NUWCDIVNPT), Code

1023, we have received funding from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) as part of an

Interagency Agreement (IA) titled “Natural Habitat Associations and the Effects of Dredging on Fish at the Canaveral Shoals, East-Central Florida.”

The scope of this effort in Mod 6 of this agreement includes sea turtles and requires the use of specialized satellite sea turtle tags to examine spatial and temporal movements of green and loggerhead sea turtles in the Canaveral region and meet the objectives and goals outlined in the IA Mod 6 with

BOEM. The minimum requirements for these satellite tags are outlined below.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENT

Essential to this work is the use of specialized satellite tags that have the following capabilities: 1) Argos positioning capability; 2) Fastloc GPS positioning capability; 3) battery life greater than 880 days (with a transmission setting of 300 Argos transmissions per day) to allow for a period of tracking data that will be complementary with previously tagged fish species in the same location.

Wildlife Computers, SirTrack, and Telonics specialize in various satellite tags for sea turtles. Code 1023 will be working with NASA contractors at the Kennedy Space Center to tag sea turtles and meet the requirements of the IA outlined above.

Sea turtle satellite tags offered by all 3 vendors have Argos and Fastloc positioning capabilities.

However, only the Wildife Computers tags meet the battery life requirements that will provide for long term tracking data to support analyses similar to multi-year fish datasets.

Minimum

Specifications/Salient

Features

Wildlife Computers SirTrack Telonics

(1) Argos Positioning YES YES YES

(2) FastLOC GPS Positioning YES YES YES

(3) Battery life that will provide for long term tracking

YES NO NO

dataset

Meets Requirements? YES NO NO

CONCLUSION

Wildlife Computers SPLASH satellite tags are the only known tags with Argos positioning capability, Fastloc GPS capability, and also battery life greater than 880 days that provides for long term tracking data similar to multi-year fish datasets.