U--Intent to Award - American Fisheries Society 141st Annual Meeting

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has a requirement for attending the American Fisheries Society 141st annual meeting on September 4-8, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. This service is known to be available only from the American Fisheries Society as the only provider of admission because they are the only vendor who provides admission to their meeting. The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an award to American Fisheries Society, unless it is contacted by any vendor who believes they can provide the same service. Vendors are invited to contact the Contract Specialist at [email protected] no later than 11:00 AM EST, Thursday, September 1, 2011 with an affirmative answer. SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION STATES THE FOLLOWING PART: The 2011 American Fisheries Society Meeting provides a unique forum for participants to explore the many multidisciplinary aspects of fisheries science and management. In addition to the mix of outstanding symposia, contributed papers, and posters for which AFS meetings are known, the Seattle meeting will feature a broad range of technical, social, and legal topics that are of national and international interest, including measures to recover from massive anthropogenic and weather-related catastrophes and to ensure the long-term sustainability of fisheries resources, all of which run parallel to the USGS=BF mission. This meeting provides the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area (ECO) with a truly unique opportunity to reach out to the many different professional organizations in attendance each year, (both foreign and domestic) and provides the rare opportunity for the USGS to collaborate with these organizations and share ideas and discuss the latest research breakthroughs and techniques being used worldwide while at the same time providing the USGS with the invaluable opportunity to promote our own research and share our own accomplishments. No organization other than the AFS provides a forum for voluntary-consensus industry standards development. Not attending this meeting would likely jeopardize the USGS=BF status as a lead agency.