At-Sea Monitor Services for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center

This Request of Information and Sources Sought is for Planning Purposes. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of the sources sought notice or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. Your response to this Request for Information will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a quote or proposal. This request is issued for the purpose of exchanging information to improve the understanding of industry capabilities, thereby allowing potential offerors to judge whether or how they can satisfy the Government's requirements, and enhancing the Government's ability to obtain services, at reasonable cost and price, and increase efficiency in quote or proposal preparation, evaluation, negotiation, and contract award. The Government requests capability statements from small businesses who qualify as small for the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 541712, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology). The Acquisition and Grants Office, Eastern Region Acquisition Division, Norfolk, VA on behalf of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole, MA has a requirement for at-sea monitors to collect information on marine fish. The Contractor shall collect scientific, management, regulatory compliance and economic data for fisheries by placing at-sea monitors aboard U. S. domestic fishing vessels participating in the groundfish multispecies Fisheries Management Plan. This information is required in response to the implementation of Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (NEFMP). The At-Sea Monitors (ASM's) collect scientific, management, compliance, and other data at sea through interviews of vessel captains and crew, observations of fishing operations, photographing catch, and measurements of selected portions of the catch and fishing gear. The primary responsibilities of the ASM's will be to collect accurate weights on the discard portion of the catch as well as account for all catch (kept and discarded) on each tow. The work requires deploying trained ASM's to meet coverage levels required by NMFS. NEFSC will train the contractor's monitors once the contract is awarded, as needed and at the Government's expense. The Contractor shall support, as specified, the at-sea monitors during each phase of their employment period, including training, briefing, travel, accomplishing requisite land duties, data collection on fishing vessels, and debriefings. The Contractor shall provide all necessary logistical and administrative support to deploy ASM's on board vessels, normally out of ports from New York to Maine. This includes making travel arrangements, providing travel advances for monitors, and reimbursing for travel expenses. Vessels operate out of ports from New York to Maine in ocean waters, 3-200 miles offshore in all weather conditions. Typically, trips are 1- 14 days in duration. Vessels are generally 30-150 feet in length. Crew members and ASM's live and sleep in cramped quarters, often in damp conditions and share common facilities. ASM's must be willing to travel occasionally to cover locations other than their primary ports. Food is provided on multiday trips for the ASM's and must be equal to the food being served to the rest of the crew. On single day trips, ASM's must bring their own food and water. Interested Contractors should include the following in their responses: - Name of Company, Address, DUNS Number and Cage Code; - Capability statement (core competencies and other relevant information); - A statement regarding current size and socio economic status of your company under the North American Classification System Code (NAICS), 541712, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology), which has a corresponding size standard of 500 employees; - Relevant past performance. Relevant past performance is performance under contracts or efforts (within recent years) that is of the same or similar scope, magnitude, and complexity to that which is described in this Request for Information. Include a list of current or previous contracts performed within the recent past that are of a similar nature to this request and include: contract number, name and address of the Government agency or commercial entity, description of work and services provided, point of contact with current phone number and e-mail address, date of contract award, period of performance, initial and current contract value, and the extent of subcontracting. Responses to this RFI are due no later than 12:00 p.m., November 12, 2014. Responses shall be sent via e-mail to Roberta.H.Smith@noaa.gov. The electronic copy of your response must be in ".pdf format" and readable by the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Questions pertaining to this notice may be emailed to the Contract Specialist, Roberta.h.Smith@noaa.gov or the Contracting Officer, Brendon.Johnson@noaa.gov. NOTE: This RFI is being issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids (IFB), a Request for Proposals (RFP), a Request for Quotes (RFQ) or an indication that the Government will contract for any of the items and/or services contained in this notice. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response to this Sources Sought Notice. Responses to this notice will not be returned. In submitting a response, you are solely responsible and accountable for all of the expenses associated with your response.