The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has a requirement to establish, maintain, and operate a program for timely response to reports of marine mammals (both alive and dead) entangled in active and derelict commercial fishing gear. This requirement includes the responsibility to conduct training to aid in the empowerment and enhancement of the skillset of network members in order to enable them to conduct their own responses, whenever possible, as well as public dissemination of information, approved by NMFS, gained from the response efforts. The goals of NMFS are to maintain a team of experts to respond to marine mammal entanglements, prevent entanglements from becoming fatal, and to increase the pool of individuals qualified to assist the primary team or, eventually, to assume full capability and responsibility of the response efforts. The accomplishment of these goals requires a sound reporting and monitoring protocol as well as the necessary equipment needed for an emergency response team to maximize the potential for decreased timing responses to each incident. The proposed contract is necessary to maintain a formal disentanglement network as a part of a greater management scheme that involves the U.S. Coast Guard, NMFS east coast regions, several state fisheries agencies, individual fishermen, and conservation and research groups. The disentanglement program will require dedicated staff along with the infrastructure and administrative resources to support them. The necessary support shall include office staffing, communications, public/media relations, education and outreach, provision and maintenance of equipment kits and caches, and training of network participants, including small boat safety and handling as required by NOAA small boat program. The disentanglement network established by NMFS through it's current contractor includes providing assistance in Canadian territorial waters, as requested by NMFS, to the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans for entanglement response. This proposed contract shall require that these contacts along the Atlantic coast of the United States be maintained. The North American Industry Classification System code is 541620. The small business size standard is $6.5M. To be eligible for award, offerors must be registered with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR): www.ccr.gov and obtain a DUNS number by calling 1-800-333-0505. Proof of CCR registration must be included in submitted proposal package. All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency. A copy of the solicitation will be attached to this announcement as a downloadable Word file on or about July 9, 2007. A hard copy of the solicitation will only be provided in response to a written or faxed request received directly from the requestor. Telephone requests will not be honored. Requests for hard copies of the solicitation may be faxed to (757) 441-3786. Offers received by August 6, 2007 will be considered for award. Award will be made on or about August 28, 2007.

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