Intent To Award Single Source for Recreational Quota Entry Halibut Stamps Data Validation

***The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Acquisition & Grants Office (AGO), Western Acquisition Division-Boulder (WAD), Management and Budget Acquisition Office, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with State of Alaska Department to Fish and Game located in Juneau, Alaska for Recreational Quota Entry (RQE) Halibut Stamps Data Validation Services to be delivered one year from date of award, with 1 follow-on option year.

***The sole source determination is based on NOAA’s requirement that the State of Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game is the only vendor that provides this professional services to track the daily use of charter halibut stamps on charter vessel logbooks and subsequently share this data with NOAA Fisheries.

ADF&G is the only entity able to execute the desired services, which are needed to fully implement the RQE halibut stamp program. ADF&G already has an electronic logbook platform that is required under State of Alaska regulations for all saltwater charter operators. The logbook can be easily adapted to document the use of charter halibut stamps. NOAA Fisheries and ADF&G already have a data sharing agreement currently in place, which will facilitate many of the protocols of ADF&G’s sharing of the logbook data with NOAA Fisheries. No other agency or vendor is in a position to effectively and efficiently deliver this service to NOAA Fisheries.

Approximately 200,000 electronic charter halibut stamps will be purchased by charter operators each year on eFISH, a NOAA Fisheries online platform. Charter operators may purchase any amount of stamps at any time. The electronic stamps will be held in a cache in the charter operator’s personal eFISH account. The use of the stamps will be documented by charter operators on ADF&G electronic charter vessel logbooks (eLogbook). ADF&G requires charter operators to complete an eLogbook entry for each charter vessel fishing trip. ADF&G also has a regulatory requirement for charter operators to periodically upload their eLogbook data to ADF&G’s eLogbook database. Through this requirement, ADF&G will compile the eLogbook data and share it with NOAA Fisheries to facilitate RQE and fishery management. NOAA Fisheries will merge the eLogbook data into the charter operator’s eFISH halibut stamp accounts, thereby providing a means to “debit” the daily use of halibut stamps from the charter operator’s account. By viewing their NOAA Fisheries eFISH account, charter operators will be able to track all of their purchases of halibut stamps and all of the validated uses of stamps.

Key tasks to be performed by the contractor (ADF&G), include the following:

• Modify the charter vessel eLogbook to enable charter operators to enter the number of charter halibut stamps that an operator validates for each charter vessel trip.


• Provide adequate instructions that allows charter operators to understand: 1) the regulations that require charter halibut stamps to be validated on eLogbooks (e.g. “stamps are required for each angler 18 years and older who retain halibut on this trip”); 2) the requirement that the eLogbook data from a charter trip must be uploaded to ADF&G within a specific period of time.


• Collect the eLogbook data and collaborate with NOAA Fisheries to create a mutually agreed-upon method to share the eLogbook data, most likely through an Application Programming Interface (API) feed.


• Provide to NOAA Fisheries for each charter vessel trip, the following logbook fields, at minimum: the date of the charter trip, the ADF&G business registration number, the sport fishing business name, the charter vessel name, the Division of Motor Vehicles registration number or the USCG documentation number of the charter vessel, the port of embarkation, the saltwater guide registration number, the charter halibut permit number(s) used, the number of charter halibut stamps that were validated.


• Ensure that confidentiality standards are maintained for the eLogbook data .


• Collaborate with NOAA Fisheries to develop effective and timely protocols, including point-of-contact persons charged with identifying and correcting errors in the eLogbook data, to ensure that the data used by each agency is current.

Period of Performance is from Date of Award for one year and one optional year.

***This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can fully meet the government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.