SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- NEPA Support for Fisheries Management Measures in the Western Pacific - PIRO-10-0537
- Notice Date
- 7/14/2010
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 541620
— Environmental Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Lab, 74 Magruder Road, Highlands, New Jersey, 07732, United States
- ZIP Code
- 07732
- Solicitation Number
- PIRO-10-0537
- Archive Date
- 8/13/2010
- Point of Contact
- Denise Rogers, Phone: 808-944-2208
- E-Mail Address
-
DENISE.ROGERS@NOAA.GOV
(DENISE.ROGERS@NOAA.GOV)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- PIRO-10-0537 National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Regional Office Sustainable Fisheries Division NEPA Support for Fisheries Management Measures in the Western Pacific STATEMENT OF WORK June 22, 2010 1. Background The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act or MSA) contains provisions to ensure the nation's fisheries are sustainably managed. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries or NMFS) works in coordination with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to manage federal fisheries of the western Pacific region. New fishery management measures are subject to provisions of the MSA and other laws including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In the western Pacific region, NMFS Sustainable Fisheries Division (SFD), at the direction of the Regional Administrator, Pacific Islands Region (PIR), is responsible for preparing fishery management proposals that comply with MSA, NEPA, and other laws and provide a sound legal basis for decision making. The purpose of this Contract is to obtain assistance from a qualified contractor to assist SFD in preparing NEPA-related work. The services provided under this Contract will consist of reviewing drafts, developing scoping and working plans, drafting portions of Environmental Assessments (EAs), and drafting preliminary decision documents (Finding of No Significant Impact or FONSIs) based on the environmental impact analysis. The services may include extracting data from published literature and governmental sources, obtaining expert reviews, providing input on environmental impact analysis sections of environmental assessments, and developing detailed comments on documents to help ensure compliance with NEPA and the Office of Environmental Quality Control regulations implementing NEPA. SFD seeks contractor assistance on reviewing five sustainable fishery management environmental assessments (EAs) of moderate complexity and drafting five FONSI statements based on the EA analyses. Initial documents will be drafted by the Council or SFD staff and provided to the contractor as drafts for review and recommendations on upgrading the analyses for compliance with NEPA and in accordance with sound fishery management practices. In accordance with NEPA, all documents are required to describe the existing fishery and baseline environmental impacts and describe potential impacts of proposed fishery management alternatives on specific target fisheries, non-target fisheries, bycatch issues, impacts on Essential Fish Habitat, Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, endangered species, and other direct, indirect, short-term, long-term, and cumulative impacts. The NEPA analysis work may also involve studies on the impacts of particular specifications, allocations, or other management measures on members of affected fishing communities. 2. Tasks, Deliverables, and Monitoring The Contractor shall review and/or prepare portions of EA documents and draft FONSIs on fishery management measures for the pelagic, bottomfish and seamount, crustacean, precious coral, and coral reef ecosystem fisheries of the western Pacific region. Contractor shall prepare and deliver to SFD written comments resulting from the reviews, or edits to draft documents. The reviews shall assess the extent to which the documents comply with NEPA, or, in the case of portions of NEPA documents, shall provide SFD with information that will contribute to the sound environmental impact analyses required by NEPA and agency requirements. The output from review work, or document drafts shall be delivered electronically using Word program. The Contractor will have three weeks from the request for review to delivery on EAs, and two weeks from the request for review to deliver draft FONSI documents. The Contractor's performance shall be monitored and evaluated by SFD NEPA Specialist and approved by the SFD Assistant Regional Administrator (ARA). The performance evaluation will be prepared according to the guidelines provided in DAO-216-13, "Evaluation of the Results of Advisory and Assistance Contracts." SFD is seeking assistance with reviewing a total of five EAs and development of five FONSIs during the period of performance. Task 1. The first task is expected to be available in September 2010 and will consist of a Pelagics FEP amendment and EA covering a proposed adjustment to the bycatch retention limit for swordfish in the Hawaii deep-set fishery. The contractor will assist SFD by providing a NEPA compliance review which will include an evaluation of the purpose and need, the range of alternatives and their description, baseline impact analysis, and impacts to resources as listed in "1. Background" section, above. Direct, indirect, short-term, long-term, and cumulative impacts will be analyzed in the document. As part of the compliance review the Contractor will make recommendations and/or provide any additional information or analysis that is needed. The contractor will draft a FONSI based on the final EA. Based on recent EAs and FONSIs developed for the western Pacific region, Task 1 will take approximately 40 hours (5 days). Task 2. The second task is expected to be available in the Fall of 2010. As described for Task 1, Task 2 will consist of reviewing and improving the NEPA portion of an integrated Pelagics FEP amendment and EA covering a proposed adjustment to the limited entry permit system in the American Samoa-based longline fishery and developing a draft FONSI. Based on recent EAs and FONSIs developed for the western Pacific region, Task 2 will take approximately 40 hours (5 days). Details of the other three tasks are not yet developed. In general, SFD will have three additional combined FEP amendment/EA documents that will need NEPA compliance review and development of draft FONSI which SFD estimates will take approximately 40 hours (5 days) per task. For this contract, the Contractor would not be writing the EA document; rather, the Contractor will be reviewing and providing recommendations for improving any missing fisheries information; fish and other resource impact information; and making suggestions for completing a sound NEPA analysis. The Contractor will be drafting FONSI documents as part of the contract. To see a sample of a draft FMP/EA document of moderate complexity similar to the work requested in this scope of work, bidders can request a digital copy of "Draft Amendment 15 to the Pacific Pelagics FMP including an Environmental Assessment" by calling: (808) 944-2265; or obtain it through the internet at http://www.wpcouncil.org/ and then searching the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council's website for "Pacific Pelagics Amendment 15". SFD will provide the contractor with information regarding agency requirements specific to the content of a FONSI for a proposed fishery management action. Bidders are asked to provide a quote based on reviewing and improving a total of five draft EAs and developing an associated draft FONSI document (5 total FONSI documents). 3. Contractor Qualifications The Contractor or Contractor's assigned personnel must have a minimum of a Bachelors Degree in the natural sciences and be knowledgeable in fisheries management, general knowledge of fishery stock assessment methodologies and population dynamics of marine animals, preferably fish, or a minimum of 3 years of experience with developing impact analyses for fisheries resource management in the Pacific Islands region. The Contractor must have a minimum of 3 years developing and reviewing NEPA documents, preferably related to fishery projects in the western Pacific region. Selection criteria: Because the work is specialized, applicants will be evaluated for expertise in pelagic, bottomfish, crustaceans precious corals, and coral reef fisheries management in the western Pacific region including fisheries of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawaii, and U.S. Pacific Remote Island Areas; and impacts of these fisheries to resources of the western Pacific region. The selected Contractor will also have specific fisheries-related NEPA experience. Bidders should provide a summary statement of capabilities to help SFD evaluate these competencies and qualifications. 4. Schedule of Work NMFS shall provide the Contractor with schedules for specific tasks. These schedules are subject to change. Completion of the services and deliverables for specific tasks is contingent on SFD providing documents for review to the Contractor in a timely manner. Delay in providing those materials to the Contractor may cause unavoidable delays in deliverables under this Contract. Adjustments in work schedule and project tasks may be made by mutual consent. The Contractor shall immediately advise the SFD NEPA Specialist of any conditions that are likely to cause problems in meeting any schedules. 5. Costs, Payment Rate, and Billing The Contractor shall submit invoices for labor expended at monthly intervals. Tasks will be provided to the Contractor and minor adjustments the cost will be made by mutual agreement of the parties, when the actual work specification is available. The duration of this Contract is for roughly 12 months: 01 Sept. 2010 through 30 Sept. 2011. 6. Government-Supplied Materials SFD will provide Contractor with draft FMP amendment/EA documents in digital format. During the course of this Contract, the Contractor shall have access to Government data relevant to this project, as required. Any information that has not been published that is received from the Government in connection with this Contract, or furnished to the Contractor from other sources in response to the Government's requirements under this Contract, will be restricted to this project, and may not be disclosed or used for any other purpose without the prior written approval of the Contracting Officer. The restrictions do not apply to information which: 1. Currently or subsequently enters the public domain; 2. Has been released to any third party, without restrictions; or 3. Is obtained by the Contractor independent of the Government. Title to all Government data furnished to the Contractor in connection with this Contract shall remain with the Government. 7. Restricted or Limited Use of Data The Contractor's final deliverables, all draft documents, and any working document prepared as a part of this Contract are the property of the Government and may not be published or released to any individual or organization without prior written approval of SFD. Specifically, the Contractor may not publish any part of the documents being prepared as part of this Contract in any refereed scientific journal, trade publication, publicity brochure, etc., without the express written approval of SFD. The C&A requirements of clause 73 do not apply, and a security accreditation package is not required. 8. Federal Acquisition Regulations All sections of the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) attached by reference to this Contract shall apply, including FAR Part 49 on termination of contracts for convenience and default. 9. Period of Performance The period of performance for this contract shall be on or about September 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011.
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