PacMAPPS Survey Design

***NOAA'S ACQUISITION & GRANTS OFFICE, WESTERN ACQUISITION DIVISION-BOULDER AND THE NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE (NMFS) INTENDS TO NEGOTIATE, ON A SOLE SOURCE BASIS, UNDER AUTHORITY OF FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), WITH FOUNDATION FOR MARINE ECOLOGY AND TELEMETRY RESEARCH OUT OF SEABECK, WA  FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A QUANTITATIVE SURVEY DESIGN FOR SHIP-BASED VISUAL AND ACOUSTIC SURVEYS IN THE GULF OF ALASKA.  

***THE SOLE SOURCE DETERMINATION IS BASED ON THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION'S (NOAA) DETERMINATION THAT THE FOUNDATION FOR MARINE ECOLOGY AND TELEMETRY RESEARCH is the only source available to provide THESE SERVICES. Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research (MarEcoTel) has a unique set of expertise and experience which makes them the only source capable of providing these services to NMFS, AFSC, MML. MarEcoTel has unique prior research experience developing, designing, and conducting surveys in the Gulf of Alaska for U.S. Navy projects (e.g., Rone et al. 2010, 2014, 2017). The vendor’s personnel are leaders in this field, are highly qualified and have significant expertise in this area, in particular, designing statically robust line-transect surveys for abundance estimation of cetacean species and incorporating Conventional (CDS) and Multiple Covariate Distance Sampling (MCDS) methods to estimate detection probabilities from acoustic detections, 25X (Big Eye) observations, and satellite-tagging data. This vendor also has extensive prior research experience designing and conducting surveys in other regions in the North Pacific and Bering Sea (Zerbini et al. 2015, 2016). Their prior experience would significantly reduce preparation time and costs, and would make execution of fieldwork substantially more efficient. The use of any other vendor for this project will result in significantly longer times for project preparation, higher costs for project execution, and increased risk of project failure.

The peripd of performance will be 7/9/2021 – 7/8/2022.

***THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS AND NO SOLICITATION PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE. HOWEVER, FIRMS THAT BELIEVE THEY CAN FULLY MEET THE GOVERNMENT'S REQUIREMENTS MAY SUBMIT SUBSTANTIATING DOCUMENTATION IN WRITING TO THE IDENTIFIED POINT OF CONTACT WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION OF THIS SYNOPSIS. SUCH DOCUMENTATION WILL BE EVALUATED SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOT TO CONDUCT THIS PROCUREMENT ON A COMPETITIVE BASIS. A DETERMINATION BY THE GOVERNMENT NOT TO CONDUCT A COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT, BASED UPON RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE, IS SOLELY WITHIN THE DISCRETION OF THE GOVERNMENT. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.