L -- State/Regional Data Assessment

NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology plans to negotiate on a non-competitive basis with Mr. James E. Kirkley to develop an IMPLAN model of the fisheries and gear types in the Mid-Atlantic States. This work is in accordance with a wide array of federal legislation and policies which require the analysis of the potential economic impacts of fisheries management (ex., Sustainable Fisheries Act through National Standard 8, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Executive Order 12866, and the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)). NMFS needs to be able to access the economic importance of commercial fisheries and related sectors to the U.S. economy (i.e., processing, wholesale, distribution, and retail)). The Government requires the contractor to develop a strategy for an I/O model capable of providing estimates of the economic contributions of fisheries and related products to the U.S. economy. There are six primary tasks: (1) data/needs assessment for developing state/regional impact assessment models; (2) collection of secondary data or information from other sources necessary to develop a national I/O model; and (3) construction of a national I/O model based on IMPLAN, an "off-the-shelf" software for developing I/O models; (4) develop EXCEL, or other spreadsheet-based I/O assessment framework; (5) estimate the economic importance of commercial fisheries and related products to the U.S. economy in terms of sales or output, income, and employment; and (6) prepare report summarizing research, the I/O model, impacts, and use of the I/O framework. To better determine the needs of the agency relative to enumerating economic impacts, the contractor will review the following: (1) all legislation that requires an assessment of the economic impacts of federal management or regulation; (2) existing and previous lawsuits that focused on issues related to economic impacts; (3) and agency policies that recommend an assessment of the potential economic impacts of management and regulation. The review will focus providing information to the agency about when economic impacts must be assessed and the potential nature and scope of the types of impacts that must be assessed. The proposed work involves two major steps: (1) data/needs assessment, and (2) development of national model and estimation of economic impacts of U.S. commercial fisheries and related products. It is anticipated that the data/needs assessment will require approximately 6 months calendar time, approximately 32 hours. The development of the national model and estimation of the economic impacts will require approximately 1,150 hours; that will be continuing over a 12 month period. Award will be processed under the Simplified Acquisition Procedure. All sources capable of satisfying this requirement are invited to submit proposal information as to their capabilities by the required due date, September 19, 2002.