Manuscript Development for Loggerhead Sea Turtle Density Project

Added: Jul 14, 2015 6:30 pm

The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, (NEFSC) intends to issue a Request for Quotations (RFQ) on behalf of the Protected Species Branch for research necessary to continue a Loggerhead sea turtle densityproject.  The requirement is to prepare journal-style manuscripts as well as all data organization, data manipulation, literature searches, method selection, and statistical analysis that would typically be associated with the publication of a paper in a high quality scientific journal.  The manuscript should include an appropriate Discussion which states relevant interpretations and opinions, documents uncertainty and any scientifically-relevant shortcomings or obstacles, reveals the limitations, explains the results in light of what was already known, explains our new understanding of the problem after taking the results into consideration, and make suggestions for future research. 

The contractor shall use information from all data supplied by NMFS that meet data quality standards, based on the expert opinion of the contractor, NEFSC, and other collaborators.  The spatial extent of all final model results shall be limited to areas where reasonable confidence in modeled estimates exists, based on the expert opinion of the contractor, NEFSC, and other collaborators. 

The contractor shall have experience working with data from Sea Mammal Research Unit Satellite relayed data loggers, particularly from tags deployed on loggerhead sea turtles to include extensive experience with modeling, particularly related to spatial analysis.   The Government prefers contractors that have authored publications in the following areas related to:

·         spatial dynamics and/or predicting seasonal distributions

·         estimating density and population size

·         highly migratory marine animals

·         dealing with uncertainty extensively and explicitly

·         climate change, particularly in relation to effects on animal distribution

·         complex models which use input from fishery-dependent and fishery-independent sources

The RFQ will be issued on or about July 14, 2015, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13 via the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website http://www.fedbizopps.gov. The RFQ number will be EE-133F-15-RQ-0798; hard copies of the RFQ will not be issued. It is incumbent upon the contractors to monitor the FedBizOpps site for RFQ release and all subsequent amendments. The anticipated award date will be on or about August 1, 2015.  This acquisition will be awarded as a firm -fixed price order under simplified acquisition procedures. All responsible sources may submit a quote which shall be considered by the agency. To be eligible for award, vendors must obtain a DUNS number (this may be done by calling 1-800-333-0505) and be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) www.Sam.gov.  The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the acquisition is 541712 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. Copies of the solicitation will only be posted on FedBizOpps. If you download a copy of the solicitation, please email your company name and address or fax the information to (508) 495-2004. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to: kelly.taranto@noaa.gov