United States - 5I.T. Support Services for Alaska Region

Description

Added: Apr 22, 2019 1:22 pm

The Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Region Office, is a pioneer in quota-based fisheries management programs, which allocate total allowable catch to vessels, groups of cooperating vessels or catch privileges to individuals. The backbone of these management programs are sophisticated reporting and catch accounting systems that operate in near real time and support multiple fisheries occurring simultaneously. Alaska's fisheries are valued at over $2.5 billion per year and provide over half the volume of fish landings in the United States. Management of this valuable resource demands responsible stewardship and involves complex management by a number of agencies including NMFS, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), and the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC). These agencies work together to implement fishery management programs to address habitat concerns and accomplish catch limit and catch allocation objectives. Regulatory amendments to fishery management plans in the North Pacific are frequent and widely considered to the most complex in the nation.

Complex data collection programs, database infrastructure and applications are required to support the sustainable management of Alaska fisheries and these require specialized application engineering knowledge and skills to successfully operationalize. The Alaska Region supports four major programs that are typical of the application complexity and nature of the work are:
1. Interagency Electronic Reporting System (IERS)
NMFS Alaska Region, ADF&G, and IPHC jointly developed and maintain the IERS to collect data on commercial harvest and production of groundfish, halibut, salmon, and shellfish. Timely and accurate reporting of commercial fisheries harvest information, including bycatch of non-target species, is essential for effective in-season management of fisheries. The objective of the IERS is to create a single data collection system for commercial fisheries landings and production data in Alaska. The goals of this consolidated data collection effort are to reduce reporting redundancy on the part of the seafood industry, to improve the timeliness of data availability to affected fisheries management staff, and to improve the quality of data submitted. The IERS supports seafood processors and other reporters with various levels of internet connectivity.
IERS supports direct submission of data on the internet; email attachment of reports for intermittently connected systems such as those from Catcher/Processors, electronic capture of landing information via a flash drive and agency review; and data entry of reports. Users of the IERS include all seafood processors in Alaska that receive groundfish from federally permitted fishermen, all processors that receive crab managed under the crab rationalization program, registered buyers for halibut and sablefish, operators of vessels that receive or catch and process groundfish (motherships and catcher/processors) and operators of tender vessels in the salmon fishery in Alaska.
2. Catch Accounting System (CAS)
The Catch Accounting System (CAS) creates total catch estimates for the groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. Each year, over 600 quotas are established in CAS that matches the annual harvest specification tables for federally managed groundfish fisheries off Alaska. The output of CAS is the total amount of groundfish that is retained and the amount that is discarded at sea. In addition, the system creates estimates of the total amount of non-groundfish species, both prohibited species and non-target species that are caught in the groundfish fisheries. CAS uses a combination of industry reports and onboard observer information to provide an estimate of total catch and bycatch. Industry reported data consists of catch and processed product amounts, and these reports are electronically recorded and submitted to NMFS via eLandings. The observer data are collected by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) using a stratified sampling design. Other sources of information come from the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC), which issues state permits and vessel licenses; and Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS), which collect the position, time at a position, and course and speed of fishing vessels. CAS is part of the larger NMFS database and, as such, interacts with data in the database such as permit information (e.g., federal fishing permits, federal processor permits, etc.), species, gear and areas. The primary customer of CAS is NMFS Inseason Management, and the information from the system is used to manage groundfish quotas and prohibited species catch limits. Other customers for CAS include the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, groundfish stock assessment analysts, fishery participants, and non-governmental organizations. Customers access the data using standard reports, ad hoc queries, database pushes, or database links.
3. Halibut and sablefish Individual Fishery Quota (IFQ) Program
The Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program supports both the permits and the catch management for Halibut and Sablefish. Permits are issued for harvesting and receiving/processing halibut and non-trawl sablefish. For IFQ Halibut/Sablefish Permits, owners of vessels with specific historical participation in non-trawl halibut and sablefish fisheries were issued Quota Share (QS). An IFQ permit authorizes participation in fixed-gear harvests of Pacific halibut off Alaska and most sablefish fisheries off Alaska. The permits are not specific to vessels. Permits are issued annually, at no charge, to persons holding fishable Pacific halibut and sablefish Quota Share (QS); or to those who are recipients of QS/IFQ or IFQ-only transfers from QS holders. Authorized pounds for annual IFQ permits are determined by the number of QS units held, the total number of QS units in the "pool" for a species and area and the total amount of halibut or sablefish allocated for IFQ fisheries in a particular year; plus "adjustments" from prior year QS use.
4. ShoreZone Mapping System
The ShoreZone mapping system is a mapping and classification system that collates and interprets low-altitude aerial imagery of the coastal environment. Its objective is to produce an integrated, searchable inventory of geomorphic and biological features of the intertidal and nearshore zones which can be used as a tool for science, education, management, and environmental hazard planning. ShoreZone is supported through partnerships between NMFS and several other government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Large portions of southeast and central Alaska have been imaged and mapped and the systems provides a catalog of geomorphic and biological resources at mapping scales of better than 1:10,000 and interactive ArcIMS web-site. The high resolution, attribute rich dataset is a useful tool for extrapolation of site data over broad spatial ranges and creating a variety of habitat models. Alaska fisheries management systems are written primarily using Oracle backend database with logic written in a combination of PL/SQL, Java, Java Script, and related technologies (SQL Server and MySQL are also used).
Development is for frameworks that include World Wide Web, Adobe Flex, and BIRT Reports. A variety of project management approaches are used including Agile.
Tasks
These programs require support that will include programming of new and existing electronic. All services provided through this contract shall be provided in accordance with NMFS standards and integrate seamlessly with the existing fishery management systems. The services will be thoroughly integrated with each NMFS sub organization and that organization's business processes. Support will need to be flexible in order to respond rapidly to changing priorities reporting systems, development of fisheries management applications, and associated technical support.
These tasks involve: Fisheries database management and software engineering; System Administration and Help Desk Support; Improvement and Maintenance to Database Systems; Applications Development Support for Operation & Maintenance of existing fisheries systems; and Infrastructure Support in Juneau and Anchorage.
• Task 1 - Improvement and Maintenance to Database Systems (10%);
• Task 2 - Applications Development Support for Operation & Maintenance of existing fisheries systems (85%); and
• Task 3 - Infrastructure Support in Juneau and Anchorage (5%).
The Contractor shall furnish all necessary personnel, equipment, required for Performance Work Statement/specifications which will be provided in the Request for Proposals (RFP).
The proposed contract action is set aside 100% for 8(a) Small Business. The NAICS code for this procurement is 541511 and the business size standard for this requirement is $27.5M. It is highly encouraged that any vendor meeting this size standard and desiring to be considered for award be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) using this NAICS code or a NAICS code with an equivalent size standard. For additional information and to register in SAM, please access the following web site: www.sam.gov. In order to register with the SAM, all offerors must also have a Dun & Bradstreet Number. A Dun & Bradstreet number may be acquired free of charge by contacting Dun & Bradstreet on-line at https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/viewiUpdateHome.htm or by phone at (866) 969-8491. It is also preferred that offerors to complete the electronic representations and certifications at the SAM website.
Any resulting contract will be awarded as a labor hour contract with a few firm fixed price line items. Solicitation documents will be made available for download on or about early May 2019 at http://www.fbo.gov/. Paper copies of this solicitation will not be issued. Interested parties should use the FedBizOpps [Add to Watchlist] and [Add Me to Interested Vendors] features which provide a notification when the Request for Proposal (RFP) becomes available for download as well as all postings of information associated with this solicitation thereafter. Each potential offeror is responsible for checking the FedBizOpps website to gain all current information related to the solicitation. The solicitation and any further announcements regarding the solicitation will be posted only at http://www.fbo.gov/. The date offers are due will be stated within the solicitation documents and will be adjusted based upon the actual release date of the solicitation. All questions of any nature regarding this procurement should be sent in writing to the Carina Topasna at carina.topasna@noaa.gov and cc: Contracting Officer, Sarah Waugh at sara.waugh@noaa.gov.
(End of Document)

Opportunity closing date

24 May 2019

Value of contract

to be confirmed