Gillnetting and trapnetting Services to remove Lake Trout from Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park (YNP). This went out as a Sources Sought #P13PS000945. Contract Specialist: Debbie Kahawai, 505-988-6824,
[email protected]; Contracting Officer: Tammy Gallegos, 505-988-6085,
[email protected] This announcement serves as the pre-solicitation notice for Firm Fixed Price contract. This contract shall acquire assistance from professional Gillnetting and/or Trapnetting fishing operations, including all necessary personnel and gear, such as boats, nets, lines, weight, and buoys, for purpose of suppressing lake trout on Yellowstone Lake. THIS IS FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION. This contract shall be awarded for a one year base period, and four one-year option periods for a potential aggregate total of five years. The total five year aggregate capacity of this contract shall not exceed $15 million dollars. Combined task order awards for the base year shall not exceed $4 million dollars. Combined task order awards for each exercised option year shall not exceed $4 million dollars. The Government anticipates award of one contract resulting from the actual solicitation for this requirement. The general scopes of the task orders may include, but are not limited to the following: Work is to bolster the existing lake trout suppression program of the NPS. The fishing activities must be tailored to remove the non-native lake trout while minimizing mortality of the native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. This requirement will include but is not limited to providing captains and crew of size and working days/hours sufficient to meet gillnet and trap net effort targets. The Contractor is expected, to deploy boats up to 7 days each week and to work hours that will maximize the availability of daylight as it varies through the season. Gillnetting using contractor boats will be conducted by the contractor deploying at least two large over 35 ft Gillnetting boats from approximately May 15 through October 24 annually. Gillnetting using a NPS boat will be conducted by the contractor providing captain and crew to operate an existing, large 32 ft NPS Gillnetting boat same timeframe as above. A gillnet unit of effort is defined as one 100-meter length gillnet set over one night. Maximum number of nights each net will be set (soak time) is expected to be 3 nights or less. The gillnet effort target is 57,000 gillnet effort unit during the 2014 season. Effort target may vary among years. Trapnetting using contractor boats will be conducted by the contractor deploying at least one large over 40 ft open deck trap net boat and by strategically placing, lifting, retrieving, and moving at least 10 deep water trap nets (varying 15-50 ft in height) May October. Contractor is expected to deploy smaller (chase) boats as required throughout the season for efficiently repairing nets and tightening harnessing lines holding the large deep water trap nets taut. The trap net effort target is to lift and reset all trap nets at least twice per week, unless approval is given otherwise. Background: Yellowstone Lake is located in the interior of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone Lake has a surface area of 136 square miles, a shoreline length of 148 miles, and an average depth of 140 ft. At an elevation of 7,800 ft, Yellowstone Lake is the largest high-elevation lake in North America. Unique and sensitive geothermal features are found on the bottom of the lake. Damage to these resources by Gillnetting or Trapnetting operations must be avoided