Inactive

NOAA – National Marine Fisheries Service – AFSC-RACE – Fisheries Effects Geostatistical Analyses – Fishing Effects Modeling This is a Sources Sought Notice in preparation for an upcoming procurement, ... NOAA – National Marine Fisheries Service – AFSC-RACE – Fisheries Effects Geostatistical Analyses – Fishing Effects Modeling This is a Sources Sought Notice in preparation for an upcoming procurement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) is conducting market research to determine potential sources for fisheries effects modeling and estimating benthic habitat disturbances from commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. Qualified vendors or sources would need to have experience modeling fisheries utilizing data from trawl & pot surveys and tagging studies to produce a spatial modeling tool which can be used to rank vulnerability of sea crab stocks to fisheries gear interactions at stock, life-history, and localized scales. The selected vendor shall have extensive experience with fisheries modeling and assisting with determining priorities for fisheries managers in the Bering Sea habitat. The selected vendor will also need to be familiar with the regulatory mechanisms in the Magnuson-Stevenson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code is 541990 – All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. The small-business size standard for this NAICS code is $19.5m in average annual receipts. • A draft Statement of Need (SON) is provided for informational purposes only. Standard brochures will not be considered a sufficient response to this notice. Submitted Capability Statements shall include the following: General Information: Provide the company name and address, Unique Entity Identifier, Cage Code, type of business under NAICS code 541990 (e.g. Small business, 8(a), veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and/or women owned small business; or other than small business) as validated via the System for Award Management (SAM), and company point of contact including name, phone number, and e-mail address. Capabilities: Demonstrate how your firm has the capabilities to meet all requirements in the statement of need. Documentation Comments: In order to facilitate the exchange of information with industry, provide any comments, questions, or suggestions that pertain to the statement of need included with this notice. Identify any areas that appear ambiguous or otherwise unclear. Interested vendors are invited to submit an electronic response to this Sources Sought Notice to Jason Jenks, Contracting Officer, via e-mail at: jason.jenks@noaa.gov no later than 05:00 p.m. Eastern on Jul 05, 2024. Capability Statements and Documentation Comments must be submitted in writing; telephonic inquiries will not receive a response. This is not a request for technical or price quotations. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this notice or reimburse for costs incurred by interested parties providing the information requested herein. STATEMENT OF NEED Fisheries Gear Interactions – Fisheries Effects Modeling in the Bering Sea PURPOSE and BACKGROUND: In response to MSA National Standards, a Fishing Effects (FE) model has been developed to estimate benthic habitat disturbance from commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. This project will utilize bottom contact output from the FE model to quantify spatial and temporal overlap between fishing gear and Bering Sea crab stocks, and to rank assessed vulnerability to fishery interactions at stock, life-history, and localized scales. Specifically, we will utilize crab distribution and abundance data from trawl and pot surveys, directed crab fisheries, groundfish fisheries and tagging studies alongside FE model output and environmental covariates to quantify fishery interactions and identify priority areas for spatial management to mitigate bycatch and promote rebuilding of depressed crab stocks. The development of a predictive spatial modeling tool will provide fishery managers with an objective framework to evaluate the benefits and limitations of dynamic closure areas and amendments to Prohibited Species Catch spatial boundaries. In order to successfully complete project deliverables, the FE model needs to be updated with fishery data from 2021 – 2023, which necessitates filtering data, specifying gear-specific parameters, and running the model over a range of initial conditions. Furthermore, the development and addition of a points-in-area based event modeling framework to the FE model workflow will facilitate a better understanding of crab-gear interactions. SCOPE: The period of performance is September 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025. A draft report and preliminary data will be delivered on December 1, 2025. Delivery of the final report and data will be on December 31, 2025. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS/SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS: The work detailed in this project necessitates that the contractor has extensive knowledge of Bering Sea fisheries and gear types, possess advanced coding ability in R, and have experience with spatial modeling and geostatistical analysis in R and ArcGIS. It is imperative that the contractor have access to and working knowledge of the North Pacific FE modeling framework, as well as NMFS fishing effort data and gear specific parameters compiled by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. All analyses will be conducted at a marine laboratory or university, and the use of NOAA facilities will not be required. Deliverables will include a final report sent to NOAA, including the technical methodology for model development, R script and associated GitHub repository containing annotation and documentation for the addition of a points-in-area event modeling framework, and Fishing Effects model bottom contact output through 2023. This is a firm fixed-price service contract and funds allocated to the contractor shall be used for labor as needed to produce the deliverables above. Deliverables will include a final report sent to NOAA, including the technical methodology for model development, R script and associated GitHub repository containing annotation and documentation for the addition of a points-in-area event modeling framework, and Fishing Effects model bottom contact output through 2023.