Request for Information: NOAA Fisheries AFSC Marine Mammal Observer Program

Update 1/17/2025: Please see attached PDF with questions and answers. AFSC seeks industry input into the draft performance work statement (PWS), attached. AFSC welcomes any comments, concerns, or suggestions to clarify or improve the PWS, especially from vendors interested in participating in any future contract. This is a Request for Information (RFI), for market research purposes, in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 10 Procedures.

This is not a solicitation, nor does it guarantee a solicitation will be issued. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. This is not a request for proposals and it does not obligate the government in any manner.

Background The FMA Division desires to obtain sampling services and electronic monitoring technology support for the collection of fisheries data including fishing effort, gear characteristics and marine mammal and seabird interactions during the commercial salmon drift gillnet fisheries operating in inland waters of Southeast Alaska in 2025 and 2026. The FMA Division plans to shift monitoring methods from a traditionally observer centric program to one that employs electronic monitoring (EM) methods.

Direct observation of the fishery has historically been obtained from separate platforms requiring the program to procure vessels and boat operators in addition to fishery observers which is extremely costly. EM has been shown to be minimally intrusive to fishing operations and has the potential to document fishing effort and marine mammal interaction at a fraction of the cost of fishery observers, allowing the program to obtain higher coverage levels and more precise bycatch estimates.

While EM has been an effective method for monitoring marine mammal interaction in other gillnet fisheries, the application of EM for the AMMOP has not yet been attempted. In 2023 and 2024, FMA partnered with Archipelago Marine Resources to conduct field trials deploying several types of EM systems on SEAK drift gillnet vessels during salmon season.

Results of those trials have been promising: Vessels have adequate power to support small EM systems, there is space to install small EM units on several vessel configurations in locations that are accessible but that also do not impede fishing operations, camera views and image quality can capture seabird and marine mammal interaction with the nets.