J--NOI - Electrofishing Boat Retrofit

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) hereby submits a Notice of Intent (NOI) to inform industry contractors of the Government's intent to award a sole source, firm-fixed priced contract to Smith-Root, Inc., located at 16603 NE 50th Ave in Vancouver, WA. This contract action is for commercial services under NAICS code 334511, Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing for which the agency intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under FAR 13.106-1(b), Simplified Acquisition procedures. FWS currently owns a Smith-Root, Inc. manufactured electrofishing vessel (R/V Tesla) that requires upgrades/retrofitting to include but not limited to an Apex Electrofisher Control Box, Honda inverter generator, integrated center console, console cover, generator housing, leaning post style captain's seat, along with any other component that may be deemed necessary at the time of the retrofitting. FWS requires the vessel be retrofitted with an Apex Electrofisher Control Box to ensure a successful mission and for keeping the operations of the electrofishing boxes on station standardized. Standardization of our fisheries surveys is important for temporal comparisons and maintaining the same brand (Apex; Smith-Root) of equipment across survey years is an important component to standardizing those surveys. The Apex Eelectrofisher Control Box is the only Electrofisher to store GPS, electrical input, electrical outputs, warning codes, and performance information for every second of electrofishing. Additionally, it is the only boat Electrofisher to have a built in USB port to download all electrofishing data while also allowing the upload of new software. Although retrofitting this vessel could possibly be accomplished by other vendors, Smith-Root, Inc. will not warranty their Apex Electrofisher Control Box if it is purchased or installed by another vendor. In order to maintain the familiarity, standardization, and safety of FWS staff, it is in the best interest of the Government to award this purchase order to Smith-Root, Inc. FWS anticipates an award in February 2022 with a proposed period of performance of four months with an estimated total contract value of $65,000. This announcement constitutes the only notice. This is not a request for competitive quotes. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, which must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government and would not be cost or time prohibitive. Responses received from this solicitation will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination by the agency not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the agency. Questions or comments to this NOI should be directed to Contracting Officer, Ryna Russell at contact@example.gov no later than 11:00am, EST, Thursday, 02/10/2022. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted. Please indicate in the subject of your email: Notice of Intent Capability Statement Submission - DOIFFBO220023.