CA-red bluff FWO-hatchery tagging

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting for marking and tagging services for juvenile salmon and steelhead produced at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery Complex in California. The procurement involves operating state-of-the-art AutoFish tagging systems to process fish with improved precision and efficiency compared to manual marking techniques. This is a sole-source contract awarded under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold through a justified single-source acquisition, meaning the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that only one contractor possesses the specialized technical expertise and equipment necessary to perform this work. The evaluation criteria emphasize the contractor's ability to operate the patented AutoFish systems effectively and maintain the technical standards required for accurate fish marking and tagging operations. The solicitation was posted on March 24, 2026, with a proposal due date of March 27, 2026, providing a three-day response window for interested parties.

This procurement uses no set-aside designation and is being awarded as a sole-source contract to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC), the incumbent contractor that has continuously performed this work since 2007. The PSMFC is the only entity with access to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's AutoFish tagging systems and the only organization with personnel possessing equivalent expertise to operate these sophisticated systems. While specific award values are not detailed in the solicitation notice, the justification notes that full and open competition would require a capital investment of approximately $1.5 million for the Fish and Wildlife Service to purchase an automated fish marking trailer, rendering such competition economically infeasible. The work will be performed at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery Complex in California's Central Valley, where the state-owned AutoFish systems are located and shared among multiple state and federally operated hatcheries. Manual tagging would serve as the only alternative method but would result in unacceptable processing delays, higher costs, and reduced precision in fish marking operations.