Notice of Intent to Sole Source

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) hereby submits a Notice of Intent (NOI) to inform industry contractors of the Government's intent to award a sole source, firm-fixed priced contract to Smith-Root, Inc., located at 16603 NE 50th Ave in Vancouver, WA.

This contract action is for commercial services under NAICS code 334511, Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing for which the agency intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under FAR 13.106-1(b), Simplified Acquisition procedures.

The Maryland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (MDFWCO) will be conducting snakehead survey work around the Chesapeake Bay, which will span a wide range of habitat conditions. To effectively conduct electrofishing to capture Northern Snakehead, MDFWCO needs to purchase one Electrofisher Control Box along with the required equipment, booms and droppers capable of producing enough power across the range of conductivities where we will be sampling. The Smith-Root Apex Electrofisher Control Box (AECB) will allow us to use only one control box to sample across various conductivities as it is the only unit designed to successfully operate across the widest range of water conductivities with one Electrofisher.

The AECB allows for hundreds of thousands of different electrical output combinations. The Programmable Output Waveform concept is patented by Smith-Root and not available from any other source, providing access to the most effective and safe output waveforms available. The AECB is the only Electrofisher with built in scientific data monitoring and recording that allows the biologist to download the recorded data via flash drive for analyzing and mapping, all of which will be used to standardize surveys in order to make appropriate statistical comparisons across waterbodies. The AECB is the only boat Electrofisher to have a built in USB port to download all electrofishing data while also allowing the upload of new software.

The AECB is also the only Electrofisher to provide on-screen active waveform visualization, graphs of output performance, GPS coordinates, and alarm mode to inform users about their defined effort limits and is the only Electrofisher with onboard tutorials and help screens describing voltage, duty cycle, and frequency outputs to educate users while in the field about appropriate electrofishing settings. These characteristics help achieve improved personnel safety, fish health safety, and meeting of scientific objectives.

FWS anticipates an award in Mid-January 2024 with a proposed period of performance of less than two months with an estimated total contract value of $20K.

This announcement constitutes the only notice. This is not a request for competitive quotes. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, which must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government and would not be cost or time prohibitive. Responses received from this solicitation will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the agency not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the agency.

Questions or comments to this NOI should be directed to Contracting Officer, Ryna Russell at ryna_russell@fws.gov no later than 11:00am, EST, Thursday, 1/11/2024. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. Please indicate in the subject of your email: Notice of Intent Capability Statement Submission ¿ DOIFFBO240039.