NOTICE OF INTENT FOR NMFS SEA TURTLE SATELLITE TAGS

This posting serves as notice of intent that the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, located in Miami, FL intends to issue a fixed price indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract for sea turtle satellite tags, both FASTLOC GPS and POP-UP ARCHIVAL TRANSMITTING satellite tags. The satellite tags are used for sea turtle research to determine the impact of fisheries interaction, assess annual survival rates, and spatial distribution of sea turtles. The government intends to award a fixed price indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract on a sole source basis to the following entity: Wildlife Computers, Inc., 8345 154TH Ave. NE, Redmond, Washington 98052. A Sources Sought Notice entitled NOAA - SEA TURTLE SATELLITE TAGS was posted in the FEDBIZOPPS on 02/09/2010 for twenty days from which no responses were received. As a result of having received no responses, the government intends to issue a sole source contract to Wildlife Computers, Inc. under the authority of Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Title VIII, PL 103-355) as implemented at Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 12.102 and Subpart 13.106-1(b) for simplified acquisition and the authority of the test program for commercial items section 4202 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. Justification for Sole Source: The specifications for the sea turtle satellite tags can be found in the Sources Sought Notice and are not reiterated here. However, those specifications are essential to ensure the compatibility of results with earlier results of similar studies; the Government has since deployed more than 47 such tags in a post-hooking mortality study for ESA-protected loggerhead sea turtles. Wildlife Computers is the only company that has popup satellite archival tags with operational protocols that ensure that even if the turtle dies wearing the tag, scientists will get back the data transmitted through the ARGOS satellite system. These protocols include a mechanical failsafe system that releases the tag prior to the popup date if the turtle sinks past 1500m and software that allows researchers to program the tag to release prior to its programmed date if the animal maintains a specified depth range for a particular time period. The PAT tags also can be programmed to transmit intermittently while still attached to the turtle to provide data critical to using known-fate mark-recapture analysis methods. Wildlife Computers, Inc. designed and built the above sea turtle satellite tags in cooperation with the NMFS and it holds all proprietary drawings, engineering data, patents, copyrights, and parts necessary to manufacture these tags. The determination by the Government not to compete the acquisitions is solely within the discretion of the government. This Notice of Intent does not invite a response. However, if a response is received it will be provided to the end user for future consideration.