Maintenance of Right Whale Catalog for NMFS

The Government intends to negotiate a follow-on contract with New England Aquarium (NEAq) on a sole source basis for Maintenance of the North Atlantic Right Whale Photo-Identification Catalog. NEAq staff created the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog in 1979 and have curated and developed it ever since. This procurement requires a very particular set of skills, and prior experience with this specific type of work. Extensive knowledge and expertise of the photo ID catalog are required in this area. The work is very specialized and requires the contractor to manage and maintain all aspects of the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog, which includes maintaining and curating the photo-identification catalog; maintaining to the Right Whale scarring database; continued reporting of anthropogenic injury case studies; continued near real-time matching for biopsy efforts, entangled, injured, sick or dead Right Whales; maintaining the genetic/catalog database comparison, including correcting and matching as necessary; and maintaining the health assessment database. The period of performance will be a base year with four (4) one (1) year option periods. A Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition will be posted at a later date.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals; however, all submittals received by the due date set forth in this notice will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement is based on upon responses to this notice within the discretion of the Government.