Two Sea-Bird 24-Position Carousels

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisitions Division-Kansas City office intends to award, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Sea-Bird Electronics, Inc., for two 24-position Sea-Bird Electronics carousels for the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, FL. A Sources Sought notice was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on June 24, 2015 and closed on July 6, 2015. No responses were received. The following equipment is required: • Two (2) 32P.xxxx CAROUSEL WATER SAMPLER (full size) PYLON-includes electronics/release pylon with mounting hub • Two (2) 32P.24xx Aluminum housing 6800 meter, 24 bottle capacity • Two (2) XSG/AG connector and Modem Interface compatible with SBE 9Plus CTD and 1lplus Deck Unit, or SBE 9Plus CTD and SBE 17plus V2 or SBE19/19plus V2/25/25 plus CTD and AFM Sole Source Justification AOML's Physical Oceanography Division (PHOD) currently owns six Sea-Bird 911 Plus Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) systems and seven 24-position carousels. The CTD system is used to collect vital oceanographic data that is required to meet the goals of field projects. The required 24-position carousels will be used on upcoming cruises. These carousels are required as they are fully interchangeable with the existing carousels and have the required specifications to match the existing carousels and complementary equipment owned by NOAA/AOML/PHOD. To keep the CTDs running at sea where spare parts are not easy to obtain having full compatibility and interchangeability is important and paramount. The purchase of these carousels will reduce time spent training personnel and maintain continuity and consistency in the data collected. Furthermore, NOAA/AOML/PHOD owns four Seabird 11 deck boxes which provide the real time data acquisition and control for the 24-position carousel. The software used by NOAA/AOML/PHOD to control the Seabird 11 deck box is proprietary software developed by Seabird. The software via the SBE 11 deck box issues the commands to the 24-position carousel actuators so bottles will open and close at desired depths. The ability to determine depths for water collection assists in gaining accurate data for the chemical makeup of local water. Using a carousel that is not fully interchangeable could cause damage or malfunction to the CTD. The cost to replace a CTD is $30,000. Because of the complications that would arise, there would certainly be errors in hardware and software and thus the data collection of the field projects would be compromised . Using a carousel that is not identical would cost approximately 1 years' worth of a programmer's time to establish duplicate software routines to operate. Control/quality assurance software would need to be rewritten to handle a different data format and many hours of testing would be needed. NOANAOML/PHOD knows of no other company able to supply an identical carousel.