THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT. IT IS NOT A SOLICITATION, NOR DOES IT GUARANTEE A SOLICITATION WILL BE ISSUED. REQUESTS FOR A SOLICITATION WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE.

Any information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Announcement is strictly voluntary. The Government will neither award a contract solely based on this notice, nor pay for any information submitted by respondents. This notice is a request by the Government to collect information from interested vendors for the purpose of market research. Failing to provide a response to this announcement will not prohibit/exclude an interested vendor from participating in a future solicitation.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) is looking for vendors who maintain a database of U.S. purse seine and longline fisheries data and who have the capability to reconcile U.S. fisheries databases. The objective is to improve U.S. data holdings and methodologies in estimating fisheries landings and species composition. PIFSC will require the successful vendor to evaluate its databases in comparison to the U.S. databases and share estimation procedures with regard to species composition.

PIFSC holds confidential fisheries data for U.S. longline fisheries. There is a database migration and processing for U.S. purse seine data from the Southwest Fisheries Science Center to PIFSC. The successful vendor will collect data for U.S. purse seine vessels under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. This collection will be independent of the U.S. government collection of data for U.S. purse seine vessels.

The successful vendor will be required to perform the following tasks:

Task 1. Data exchange between the successful vendor and PIFSC in order to reconcile databases. Databases may include U.S. longline logbook and observer data as well as purse seine logbook and port sampling data. The successful vendor will be required to maintain data confidentiality and agree not to distribute any data to a third party.

Task 2. Reconcile U.S. fisheries data held by the government and the successful vendor with a priority on U.S. purse seine data. At the conclusion of the reconciliation process, the successful vendor will be required to provide a written report detailing the reconciliation process for PIFSC's review.

The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) is 541990 with a size standard of $15.0 million.

Interested vendors are requested to provide the following information in response to this Sources Sought Announcement:

1) A statement that you believe your firm has the capability to meet all these requirements and perform these services;

2) Your firm's DUNS number & CAGE code;

3) Your firm's SBA certified small business concern status. Specifically identify if your firm is HUBZone-certified, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, or in the SBA's 8(a) program. If your firm is not small, please state that it is a large business;

4) A brief description of your firm's recent past experience (within past 3 years) performing similar services.

The information provided in response to this announcement is limited to five pages or less. All information shall be provided free of charge to the Government. The Government will not return any data provided in response to this announcement.
This request for information does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that a procurement action will be issued.

The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations.

Responses shall be provided to Contract Specialist, Julie Whitaker via email at [email protected] no later than 2:00 PM (Hawaii Time) on May 9, 2016.

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