Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, a U.S. state government interstate compact agency headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and representing California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, is a prime recipient of federal grant funding for fisheries data collection, monitoring, electronic observer support, habitat restoration coordination, and disaster relief administration across Pacific Coast and Alaska fisheries. PSMFC competes on full-and-open federal grant procurements without set-aside designations; as a state government entity, it is ineligible for small business set-asides. PSMFC is a child entity of the State of Oregon Office of the Governor.

PSMFC's federal work centers on concrete fisheries-management deliverables: fish tagging, marking, and population monitoring for Chinook and steelhead salmon; fishery observer support and electronic monitoring systems for groundfish, crab, and highly migratory species fleets; coded wire tag processing and data management through its Regional Mark Processing Center; vessel monitoring system (VMS) data acquisition and coordination; recreational and commercial fisheries data collection and dissemination through the Pacific Fisheries Information Network (PacFIN) and Recreational Fisheries Information Network (RecFIN); bioinformatics analysis for rockfish species identification; habitat restoration and fish passage forum coordination; and aquatic invasive species prevention and watercraft inspection training. Representative contract work includes a $4.35 million NOAA time-and-materials definitive contract (awarded September 2025, performance through September 2030) for West Coast groundfish trawl rationalization program support; a $3.63 million NOAA time-and-materials purchase order (awarded August 2024, through August 2029) for VMS data acquisition from fishing vessels; a $24.6 million NOAA firm fixed-price fishery observer support services contract for the West Coast Groundfish Observer Program (awarded September 2022, through September 2027); and a $1.8 million NOAA firm fixed-price HMS fisheries data collection contract (awarded October 2022, through September 2027). PSMFC also receives substantial federal disaster relief grant funding to coordinate economic assistance to commercial fishing communities affected by salmon and crab fishery failures across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest; recent awards include $193.9 million for Alaska crab fisheries disasters (awarded November 2024), $43.7 million for Alaska salmon fisheries disasters (awarded October 2024), and $20.6 million for Sacramento and Klamath River Fall Chinook disaster relief coordination (awarded January 2025).

Customer concentration is extreme: the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accounts for 413 awards (55% of the prime portfolio) worth $74 million in combined potential value, with the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service and its regional offices comprising most of the remainder. The top five funding agencies account for 74% of recent awards and 86% of combined potential value. PSMFC sits on multiple NOAA indefinite-delivery vehicles including DOCAB133F09CQ0012 (49 task orders, $6.5 million combined potential), DOCAB133F04CQ0011 (19 task orders, $6.5 million combined potential), and Blanket Purchase Agreement 101813D035 (20 task orders, $195 thousand combined potential). Activity per year remains moderate and steady — 20 to 31 awards annually over the past five fiscal years — with 32 awards (combined potential value $30.1 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and facing recompete.

Across SCI-reportable federal service contracts (FY2022–FY2024), PSMFC invoiced $17.9 million with a workforce trajectory of 13.8 FTEs in FY2022 rising to 20 FTEs in FY2024, indicating modest growth in direct-hire federal services delivery. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI contracts median around $72.93/hr, with senior labor pricing reaching the 90th percentile of $240.32/hr. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors perform an average of 19% of total hours; PSMFC names seven subcontractors across its service-contract footprint, indicating it builds its own core delivery capability while leveraging specialized subs for discrete analytical and technical work. PSMFC operates primarily as a prime grant recipient to NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with no meaningful federal contract prime awardees in the current portfolio and minimal subcontract exposure. Its federal role is almost exclusively that of grant administrator and data steward for Pacific fisheries management, positioning it as a specialized regional intermediary between federal agencies, state and tribal partners, and the commercial and recreational fishing industries.