B -- SEA TURTLE DISENTAGLEMENT

The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is issuing notice of intent to negotiate a sole source procurement with The Rhode Island (RI) Sea Grant. The proposed requirement will provide technical and scientific support services to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to assist in the planning and facilitating of a specialized workshop designed to address the fixed gear and sea turtle interactions in the Northeast Region and Eastern Canada. The Sea Turtle Disentanglement Network (STDN), initiated in 2002, is a collaborated effort, designed to make strides in it?s efforts to understand and alleviate the unintentional capture of sea turtles. The requirement will focus on identifying the entanglement interaction, providing resolution to decreasing sea turtle bycatch, and developing improvement strategies for entanglement response process, with an emphasis on pot gear and other gear with endlines (e.g., gillnets). The RI Sea Grant posses the necessary knowledge and skills required to contribute to the advance study of sea turtle entanglement and the direct impact on marine life. The RI Sea Grant is the only known source that is uniquely suited to host and facilitate this workshop. Staff and researchers at RI Sea Grant have been instrumental in evaluating sea turtle/pot gear interactions in Rhode Island waters, and are expert in this scientific field. The statutory authority is 41 U.S.C.253(c)(1), Only One Responsible Source. The proposed contract action is for supplies or services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one sources under the authority of FAR 6.302(c)(1). The applicable NAICS code is 112519. The size business standard is 7.5 million. In order to comply with the debt collection improvement act of 1996, all contractors must be registered in the central contractor registration (CCR) to be considered for an award of a federal contract. For information regarding registration in CCR, login on to the CCR website: www.ccr.gov/index.cfm. Interested parties may identify their interest and must provide evidence of their capability to respond to this requirement by 4:00 p.m. est. July 25, 2007. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. A determination by the Government not to compete with this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Note 22 applies