Sole_Source_Justification_for_Marport_Sensors_FE_Redacted_1.pdf

Version 4.0

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN ACTION EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

USING SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS

(AUTHORITY: FAR 13.501(a), 41 U.S.C. 1901)

REQUIREMENTS-24-2949, Requisition 143061-25-0045

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic & Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Western Acquisition Division and NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a sole source justification for a new requirement for AFSC-owned Marport net mensuration systems upgrades. We intend to issue a firm-fixed price supply contract to Marport Americas, Inc.

The period of performance for this requirement is from date of award through December 1, 2025.

3. Description of supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the total estimated value).

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center RACE Division conducts fishery-independent groundfish trawl surveys in Alaska. These surveys utilize net mensuration systems with multiple sensors to track the performance of the fishing gear to ensure that it is within strict survey standards. These systems are also used to estimate the area of the seafloor sampled during each tow and this is used to derive a standardized catch per unit effort, allowing direct comparison between all the tows in a survey time series. The AFSC requires updates to portable catch control and net monitoring sensors to replace an entire fleet of net monitoring sensors which are currently scheduled to become obsolete and no longer supported by the manufacturer beginning in 2026.

This entails updating the operating system for the current sensors that measure net width (38 sensors in total) by enabling functionality already present in the sensors that allows them to operate under the new Marport operating system and replacing sensors that cannot be updated/enabled with the purchase of a total of 30 new sensors. The new sensors to be purchased include 20 door spread sensors (10 primary, and 10 receiver), and 10 net height sensors (8 Speed Navigator headrope units and 2 Trident Pro headrope units).

The contract will be a firm-fixed price supply contract, with a total estimated value of $ .

4. Statutory authority permitting the sole source (including brand name) acquisition.

X 41 U.S.C. 1901, using SAP up to $7.5M as authorized by FAR 13.500(a) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

41 U.S.C. 1903, using SAP up to $15M for contingency operations as authorized by FAR 13.500(c) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. The contracting officer has determined the following circumstances justify the use of a sole source as supported below:

Only one source – The AFSC is a research branch of the NOAA Fisheries division and is responsible for

REQUIREMENTS-24-2949

research on living marine resources in the coastal oceans off Alaska and off parts of the west coast of the United States. This region of nearly 3 million square miles includes the North Pacific Ocean and the eastern Bering Sea which support some of the most important commercial fisheries in the world. The AFSC’s Groundfish Assessment Program conducts five different fishery-independent groundfish trawl surveys in Alaska. All of these surveys utilize net mensuration systems to track the performance of the fishing gear to ensure that it is within strict survey standards. These systems are also used to estimate the area of the seafloor sampled during each tow and this is used to derive a standardized catch per unit effort (CPUE), allowing direct comparison between all the tows in a survey time series.

To avoid biased estimation of CPUE, it is very important that the methods used to estimate this parameter are the same between tows and between years so that the observed change in populations over time reflects actual changes in fish populations and not due to changes in the fishing parameters estimated from the net mensuration system. Currently, acoustic net mensuration systems, such as the one from Marport, are the scientific standard for estimating real-time net geometry (mensuration) and have been used on these surveys for many years.

In addition to the standardization issues, the systems and sensors must be completely interchangeable between surveys and vessels which greatly simplifies setup, operation, troubleshooting, maintenance and training. The majority of the fisheries surveys conducted by the AFSC that require this system are conducted from chartered vessels, and therefore the system must be portable and easily installed onto any vessel or platform with minimal alteration to the vessel.

The Marport net mensuration system is a key data collection component that allows the AFSC to monitor and calculate the performance of the trawl during survey sampling collections. This data is used for statistical evaluations for tracking the trawl gears on and off bottom contact to calculate distance traveled and effort for sampling collections. The AFSC currently owns 10 Marport net mensuration systems, comprising a total of 38 individual Marport sensors. All of these sensors need to be updated or replaced, depending upon the age and configuration of the sensors, since Marport intends to no longer support or maintain our current generation of sensors starting in 2026. If the Marport Sensors are not upgraded to meet advancing technology, our congressionally-mandated bottom trawl surveys will be compromised, delayed or even potentially cancelled given the requirement that we must provide validated data on the geometry and overall performance of the trawl sampling gear for our stock assessment surveys and outdated systems will not allow us to accomplish this.

Marport net mensuration systems are the only net mensuration systems designed to be compact, making vessel set up and take downs simplified for survey work, and are compatible with most Hydrophones. Hydrophones are an underwater listening device mounted on the hull of most ships, which gathers the information from the sensors and transmits it for the use of researchers and the vessel. A portable net mensuration system is necessary as a majority of the vessels using the systems are not owned by the Government and the systems need to be easily removable at the end of the survey. Other net mensuration systems on the market are designed to be a fixed system permanently installed as part of the vessel’s electronics, which does not meet our need for a portable system. Moreso, they are bulky, complicating survey set up, take down, calibration, and maintenance, and standardization of the system for scientific operations and compatible only with proprietary hydrophones.

Compatibility to existing systems or equipment – In addition to potential standardization issues associated with moving to a different net mensuration system, the Marport systems and sensors provide critically-needed flexibility by being completely interchangeable between surveys and vessels which greatly simplifies setup, REQUIREMENTS-24-2949 operation, troubleshooting, maintenance, and training. Since the Marport net mensuration system can be made compatible with a multitude of hydrophones and vessel systems, this allows the AFSC the ability to set up the system on virtually any vessel without any dependence on matching the acoustics configuration of the vessel. Without the flexibility of the Marport system, the AFSC would be forced to either purchase multiple different net mensuration systems (including additional expense in maintenance, setup, calibration, training, etc.) that matched the hydrophones and systems installed on chartered vessels, or greatly restrict charter contracts only to vessels that could match the system selected by the AFSC. Both would greatly increase the overall cost of AFSC surveys, and greatly restrict the opportunity for vessel owners to propose on our survey contracts. Additionally, using a portable system allows for the sharing of resources between vessels, i.e. sensors and/or operating systems can be shared with another vessel to aid in maintaining operations in the event of malfunction thereby reducing survey down time.

Exclusive Licensing Agreement/Restrictive Rights/Authorized Reseller – Marport has an established exclusive licensing agreement, proprietary data, patent rights, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) required certifications with regard to the supplies and services required. Marport Americas Inc., is sole manufacturer and seller of their net mensuration systems. Marport utilizes proprietary information and manufacturing process (“Proprietary Information”) in manufacturing their products, items listed under Marport are registered trademarks and property of Marport, a Division of Airmar Technology Corporation, and no authorized resellers exist as confirmed by the vendor. Therefore, another company could not make the required updates to the sensors owned by NOAA.

6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

As required by FAR 5.102(b)(6), a notification stating intent to sole source will be posted at sam.gov. Any responses received from the notification on sam.gov will be considered by the Government. Additionally, the redacted SSJ will be posted to sam.gov within 14 days of contract award.

7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer determines that the anticipated prices will be fair and reasonable based upon a comparison with the Independent Government Estimate and market prices for similar services. Prior to the award of the proposed contract, pricing information shall be obtained from the Contractor and a price analysis will be performed to sufficiently determine that the cost to the Government of the proposed acquisition will be fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a). If pricing cannot be determined fair and reasonable, no award will be made.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Market Research was conducted to confirm that the updates being required for the existing Marport systems must be performed by the original manufacturer and that no authorized resellers exist.