Chartering of a vessel specialized in purse seine fishing to catch live herring in the western sector of NAFO Division 4S

Objectives The overall objective of the project is to tag herring using acoustic transmitters in the western sector of division 4S (North Shore of Quebec, includes unit areas 4Si, 4Sy and 4Sz; see Figure 1) to determine the migration patterns and mixing rates of herring stocks in this area. The chartered fishing vessel will have to catch live herring using a purse seine in order to tag the herring. To do this, the contractor must: • Coordinate fishing activities; • Assist DFO staff in handling live specimens; • Assist DFO staff in taking biological measurements of fishing samples and in entering data (e.g. latitude/longitude of purse seine sets or moorings); • Assist DFO staff in the deployment/retrieval of acoustic release receivers at a few stations determined according to the fishing grounds; • Freeze herring samples on board the vessel, properly documenting the information on the box and also inserting a label in the bag; • Follow the instructions provided by DFO staff on board the fishing vessel and by the scientific mission head; • Provide two water tanks of approximately 800 liters (i.e. Xactic) and feed them by a continuous pump using fresh, clean seawater. The Contractor will not be allowed to make commercial landings during the contract with DFO as they will be fishing under a scientific license provided by DFO. Conditional Set-Aside under the Federal Government Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB) This is an open tender. However, it will be conditionally set-aside under the Government of Canada’s Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB) if two or more bids have been received by Indigenous businesses who are certified under the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB) criteria and who may be listed in the Government of Canada’s Indigenous Business Directory. If your Indigenous business is not yet registered in the Indigenous Business Directory, please do so at the link provided above. If bids from two or more Indigenous businesses are compliant with the terms of the Request for Proposal, the contracting authority will limit the competition to those Indigenous businesses and will not consider bids from any non-Indigenous businesses that may have been submitted. If the bids from the Indigenous businesses are found to be non-compliant or non-responsive or are withdrawn, such that fewer than two compliant bids from Indigenous businesses remain, bids from all of the non-Indigenous businesses that had submitted bids will then be considered by the contracting authority.