Shark Pupping Survey

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisitions Division-Kansas City office intends to award, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with The University of Southern Mississippi to conduct shark pupping surveys along the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Panama City, FL. This service is for a base year and four one year option periods. Place of Performance: Mississippi Sound north of 30.21 N, between -89.167 W and -88.387 W. A Sources Sought Notice was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on July 18, 2013 and closed on July 29, 2013. No responses were received. The NAICS code for this action is 611310. Scope These surveys address the importance of habitats for coastal shark populations. Survey includes collecting data on temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen as well as biotic data (diet, predator-prey relationships). Expected results will include identification of the various shark species and what coastal zone(s) they utilize as pupping and nursery grounds. This will allow scientists to gauge the relative importance of the coastal areas, and also will allow determination of migration and distribution patterns of neonate and juvenile sharks. The data obtained from these surveys will be used to update the NOAA Fisheries Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report. Sole Source The University of Southern Mississippi is involved in the NOAA Fisheries Service-Gulf of Mexico Coastspan program. This program is a collaborative project between NOAA Fisheries and various researchers. The projects goals are to determine essential fish habitat requirements for sharks in bays and estuaries in the Gulf of Mexico. The justification for the contracted work is due to the inability of NOAA Fisheries to adequately and timely survey all bays and estuaries in the Gulf of Mexico during the field season. Because of the excessive costs of staff, travel, and overtime to NOAA Fisheries, a considerable amount of resources will be saved utilizing The University of Southern Mississippi. The University of Southern Mississippi was previously a co-principal investigator on 3-year MARFIN project designed to determine preliminary essential fish habitat requirements for sharks in Mississippi and Alabama. The University of Southern Mississippi has previously obtained knowledge of the area and sampling design and will allow for the continued monitoring of previously established stations and expansion of the original survey. Utilization of another contractor will disrupt the continuity of the survey because any new contractor will be starting without any previous knowledge of the area and design. The University of Southern Mississippi staff member is currently a scientist at Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and has considerable experience in shark biology and fisheries. This is a continuing research project in collaboration with researchers from the NOAA Fisheries Panama City Laboratory who coordinate the Gulf of Mexico States Shark Pupping and Nursery Area project. Data collected by The University of Southern Mississippi within this project are utilized for stock assessment and determination of essential fish habitat, requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The loss of any data not collected by the The University of Southern Mississippi under this program will leave serious gaps in the long term monitoring of shark populations. These gaps could significantly effect future stock assessments for critical species that are currently listed as overfished. NOAA Fisheries is required under the current federal management plan for highly migratory species to use the best available data and without sufficient information NOAA Fisheries is open to litigation.