SPECIAL NOTICE
B -- INTENT TO AWARD TO SINGLE SOURCE
- Notice Date
- 8/31/2016
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service, SSMC 3, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20910, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20910
- Solicitation Number
- ABL-16297
- Archive Date
- 9/30/2016
- Point of Contact
- Heather M Mahle, Phone: 9077896021
- E-Mail Address
-
heather.mahle@noaa.gov
(heather.mahle@noaa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NOAA's NMFS, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratories, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with Duke University, Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Box 90328, Durham, NC 27708 In accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b), the Contracting Officer determines if the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available or a portion of the purchase specifies a particular brand-name item. This determination must be supported with full justification for Sole Source or Brand Name from the Technical/Requirements personnel. When the Technical/Requirements personnel describe an item with a purchase description which limits the competition, the justification must explain why the item is the only one that will meet the Government's requirement. The Technical/Requirements personnel shall provide the following information: Organization/Line Office: National Marine Fisheries Service, Permits, Conservation, and Education Division Procurement Request Number: NFFKR00-16-03797 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Permits, Conservation, and Education Division in Silver Spring, Maryland requires continuation of the development and improvement of geospatial mapping and modeling tools to assist in the assessment of the effects of anthropogenic impacts on cetaceans. In a January 19, 2010 letter to the President's Council on Environmental Quality, NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco committed to improving the tools used by the agency to evaluate the impacts of human-induced noise on cetacean species. As a result, two data and product-driven working groups were convened in January 2011: the Underwater Sound-field Mapping Working Group (Sound Map) and the Cetacean Density and Distribution Mapping Working Group (CetMap), combined forming the CetSound project. In May 2012, the working groups presented their products at a Symposium where potential management applications were discussed with a large multi-stakeholder audience. Since, these products have been utilized by agency regulators and scientists, as well as external stakeholders, to assist in planning and the development of marine mammal impact assessments. Further, the work that began in the CetSound effort has continued to develop and is currently supported by the broad goals of the NOAA Ocean Noise Strategy, one of which is to develop publically available tools for the assessment, planning and mitigation of noise-making activities over ecologically-relevant scales. One objective of CetMap is to compile, create, and maintain regional cetacean density and distribution maps that are time- and species-specific, using survey data and models that estimate density using predictive environmental factors. Separately, to augment the more quantitative density mapping and provide additional context for impact analyses, the CetMap identifies and depicts known areas of specific importance for cetaceans, such as reproductive areas, feeding areas, migratory corridors, and areas in which small or resident populations are concentrated. Finally, the specific objective of SoundMap is to create mapping products that depict the temporal, spatial, and spectral characteristics of anthropogenic underwater noise. At the Symposium and in ongoing dialogue with CetMap and SoundMap users since 2012, NOAA identified several geospatial tools that should be developed to augment/increase the value of the baseline CetSound products in risk assessments, as well as some improvements in the technical manner in which the data is served from the CetSound website. Additionally, NOAA has always recognized the need to regularly update the CetSound tools described above with new information to ensure they remain as accurate and utile as possible for all users. This requirement is essential to NOAA Fisheries Service's mission of protecting and preserving our nation's living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. Duke University's Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab has extensive expertise in building spatial tools for marine animal and sound field data. In addition, they are the repository for the OBIS SeaMap database (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/), which is extensively utilized in the CetSound project. They have the expertise to transfer and help NOAA implement the relevant data products in the manner relevant to the project. Specifically, Duke is already in physical possession of hundreds of data layers that will be used to produce the geospatial tools that NOAA requires. Furthermore, over several years, Duke has performed geospatial analyses utilizing these geospatial layers to produce cetacean density estimates. Some of the analytical methods developed pursuant to this multi-year effort are proprietary and not available to the public. Consequently, utilizing a different source would require reproducing some of the methods and the results from the Duke and NOAA earlier collaboration. This duplication of effort would waste the Government's time and money. In addition, the time, effort, and money put into Duke and NOAA collaboration would be left unused. In conclusion, all of the work for this requirement will contribute to the multi-year collaboration between NOAA and Duke, wherein Duke has been key to the initiation, direction, and development of the CetSound effort as it exists today. The Government will determine the cost to be fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(ii), comparison with previous purchase orders. Award for this requirement will be in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13. THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS. Interested person may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement or submit proposals. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. It is the Government's belief that the only source that can provide this service. If you feel that your firm possesses the ability to provide these requirements, then you must respond by demonstrating your firm's technical capability to meet these requirements within 15 days of this Notice of intent posting. In order to protect proprietary information and prevent the unintentional releasing of guarded information all interested firms must conduct their own research regarding the specifications of the above listed item. No known potential alternate sources exist which could satisfy these requirement
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