NOAA's Acquisition & Grants Office, Western Acquisition Division-Boulder, in support of the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), has a requirement for continued facilitation support for the design, development, and implementation of the Commercial Fisheries Biosampling (CFBS) Project in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). This shall include increased development of laboratory capability to remove otoliths, gonads and tissue samples for DNA and life history research. The work will continue to include opportunistically sampling existing major fisheries on Saipan by gear, identifying finfish to the species level (invertebrates to the lowest possible taxon), conducting size-structured monitoring and life history sampling, and opportunistically monitoring existing fisheries to provide in-depth information about the catch. There will be a consistent effort to ensure that additional fishing or market pressure is not generated by the sampling protocols.

The adaptive plan to meet CFBS goals and assist NOAA's mission will be for the contractor to continue conducting field and laboratory biosampling, working collaboratively with PIFSC, and assisting Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) in shipping the samples for curatorship at the University of Guam (UOG). The Guam CFBS has also been working closely with UOG. This action will continue to expand this collaboration to include a direct link between UOG and the Saipan CFBS, for curatorship of voucher specimens, DNA barcode samples (fin clips) and digital photographs documenting species characteristics.

All Dates listed below are tentative; official dates will be provided when the solicitation is released.

TENTATIVE SOLICITATION ISSUE DATE: August 17, 2012

TENTATIVE PROPOSAL DUE DATE: August 30, 2012

ANTICIPATED AWARD DATE: September 20, 2012

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: September 29, 2012 through September 28, 2013. Two 1-year option periods will be included as well.

CONTRACTOR REGISTRATION: To be eligible for award, a contractor must (1) be registered in the Central Contractor Registry at www.ccr.gov and (2) must complete the Online Representations and Certifications Application at https://orca.bpn.gov/. All offerors must have a Dun & Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) identifier. A DUNS number may be acquired free of charge by contacting Dun & Bradstreet at (800) 333-0505 or online at https://eupdate.dnb.com, then click on "D&B D-U-N-S Number".

All responses to this notice may be submitted via e-mail to Chad Hepp, Contracting Officer, at [email protected]. The phone number for the Contracting Officer is (303) 497-3443.

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