Vessel Charter for Turtle Excluder Device Testing

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisitions Division-Kansas City office intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Bosarge Boats, Inc. from Pascagoula, MS, for a charter vessel, specifically F/V Captain Wick, equipment, captain, crew, and materials to complete Flynet Testing of the Turtle Excluder Device (TED) prototype for 5 days for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in Pascagoula, MS. A Sources Sought notice was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on June 10, 2016 and closed on June 20, 2016. No responses were received. Background Flynet trawls are currently exempt from TED regulations. The NMFS is considering the implementation of TED regulations for the flynet fishery, pending the development of practical and efficient TEDs for these large trawls. The NMFS Harvesting Systems branch has been working cooperatively with several North Carolina flynet fishermen to develop a working TED and to assess the effect which TEDs may have on the target catch. The proposed vessel charter will allow NMFS to complete necessary diver evaluations of prototype TED designs. The proposed charter will be conducted in Panama City, Florida prior to September 30, 2016. The chartered vessel will be used to test and evaluate flynet TED prototypes for a period of 3 working days. In addition, 2 working days will be needed for the vessel to steam to and from Panama City. Regulations requiring the installation of TEDs in flynets along the Atlantic seaboard have been delayed pending the development of a workable device by the NMFS Harvesting Systems Unit. Through cooperative research with the flynet fishery, NMFS has developed one practical and efficient TED design, while industry has other prototypes that need to be evaluated. These TED prototypes must undergo diver gear evaluations and small turtle testing before they are considered for commercial catch retention testing. Sole Source Justification The F/V Captain Wick is a commercial fishing vessel which possesses gallast rigging and a hydraulic net reel which is capable of fishing large mesh, high opening bottom trawls. This vessel is the only known vessel located in the Gulf of Mexico that has commercially fished for demersal fish species using this type of gear. The vessel is identically rigged to those vessels fishing in the Mid-Atlantic demersal fish trawl fishery. The NMFS knows of no other vessels currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico which are capable of towing the type and size gears to be evaluated. The vessel possesses all required electronics to complete the proposed work, i.e. fathometer, radar, plotter and GPS. The vessel captain, Mr. Steve Bosarge has a working knowledge of the deployment, operation and retrieval of high opening bottom trawls and has used this gear to commercially fish for butterfish, croaker, spot and scad in the Gulf of Mexico. His experience with the use of this gear would be of benefit to NMFS gear researchers during the project. In addition, Mr. Bosarge has previous experience with conducting contracted and cooperative gear testing involving SCUBA divers for NMFS.