Inactive

This is a Request for Information (RFI) and a Sources Sought (SS) notice for a longline survey in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands region and Gulf of Alaska. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A SOLICITATION AN... This is a Request for Information (RFI) and a Sources Sought (SS) notice for a longline survey in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands region and Gulf of Alaska. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A SOLICITATION AND IS BEING USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF MARKET RESEARCH ONLY. The attached draft Statement of Work (SOW) is for reference only. The Government is seeking industry’s input to determine the feasibility of this charter and the availability of qualified sources with the technical capability to fulfill the requirements outlined in the draft SOW. If a solicitation is generated by the Government from this RFI/SS, the Government reserves the right to use all of the information, use none of the information, or change all or part of the information noted and contained in the attached draft SOW. This notice is being published in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 5.101 requiring dissemination of information for proposed contract actions and FAR 10.001(a)(2)(ii) which requires conducting market research before soliciting offers for acquisitions with an estimated value in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold. Responses to this RFI/SS notice are due to Contracting Officer, Crystina Jubie via email at Crystina.R.Jubie@Noaa.gov no later than 5:00 pm, Pacific time on Wednesday, November 18, 2020. Duns Number and Cage code are requested with your submission. Registration in the System for Award Management, https://sam.gov, is not necessary to respond to this RFI/SS notice. If the information in this RFI/SS notice leads to a Solicitation, registration in the System for Award Management will be a requirement for doing business with and entering into a contract with the Government. All questions of any nature regarding this procurement should be sent in writing to the Contracting Officer, Crystina Jubie at Crystina.R.Jubie@noaa.gov. If appropriate, an amendment will be posted to provide relevant questions and answers to all interested vendors. Perspective firms are encouraged to check the beta.sam.gov website at https://beta.sam.gov for any amendments to this RFI/SS notice. This RFI/SS notice is being issued under NAICS: 483114. All interested prospective firms are invited to respond. A determination from this notice may lead to a small business set aside in accordance with FAR Part 19 if this RFI/SS results in a future solicitation. All Prospective firms who respond to this request will be contacted if/when a solicitation is posted to https://beta.sam.gov. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) is requiring a contractor(s) to conduct a longline survey to measure abundance and collect size and age data for adult sablefish and other groundfish along the upper continental slope and selected gullies of the eastern Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands region and Gulf of Alaska per the attached draft SOW. Historically, this project has been contracted on a cost recovery basis. The terms of the most recent contract, which was completed in August of 2020, stipulated that the vessel retains 100% of the survey’s revenue up to a threshold value of $2,212,023. Any revenues above the threshold value are mostly retained by the vessel contractor but a small percentage of those revenues were required to be used for purchasing fish sampling supplies for the next year’s charter as directed by the government. The threshold value is adjusted annually for inflation by the Consumer Price Index. At this time, there are no appropriated funds available for next year’s survey. In recent years, survey catches and prices have fluctuated, making the cost recovery arrangement less reliable. As such, the Government is inviting vendors to provide suggestions of compensation arrangements which would ensure that any contractor conducting this charter would not be operating at a financial loss. Prospective firms should notify this office of their interest in this notice by submitting a Capabilities Statement which should include their company size and provide descriptive literature or other documentation, in addition to the following information: 1) A statement that you believe that your firm has the capability to meet the requirements and perform these services outlined in the attached draft SOW. 2) A statement that your firm is interested in proposing on any resultant solicitation. Providing this statement does not bind the contractor to offer; it's simply a notice of interest for market research purposes. 3) Your firm's DUNS number and CAGE code; 4) Your firm's SBA certified small business concern status. Specifically identify if your firm is HUBZone-certified, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, or SBA 8(a) program certified; 5) A brief description of your firm's recent past experience (within past 3 years) performing relevant similar services. 6) Suggestions of a compensation arrangement which would not require federally appropriated funds, but which would ensure that a contractor performing this survey would not be operating at a loss; creativity is encouraged. All information received in response to this notice shall be treated as Business Sensitive or confidential to the responder, exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act. All information shall be provided free of charge to the Government. This notice is NOT a request for proposal. The purpose of this announcement is to gather information from the market place and any responses received will not be considered an Offer by the responding party and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No telephone inquiries will be accepted and requests for solicitation packages will not be granted, as no solicitation has been prepared at this time. Please note this is NOT a request to be placed on a solicitation mailing list nor is it a request for quote or proposal or an announcement of a solicitation. The Government will not pay for any material provided in response to this RFI/SS notice nor return the data provided. The results of this RFI/SS will be considered to be in effect for a period of one year from the date of this notice.