R -- COMPARATIVE FORAGING ECOLOGY AND MIGRATIONS OF ICE SEALS

This requirement is being procured and an award will be made in accordance with FAR Part 13, Simplified Acquisitions Procedures. The office of NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) located in Seattle, WA intends to procure on a sole source basis with Wildlife & Veterinary Consultants to coordinate final analyses, drafting, revision, and submission of three journal articles for publication in the Peer-Reviewed literature, the period of performance is 9/1/2006 to 8/31/2007NMML has, since 1985, conducted basic and applied research on the ecology of seals inhabiting the sea ice in polar regions, using satellite telemetry methods. The data amassed from this research compose a broad array of information on the movements, diving, and haul-out behavior of 8 species of seals from the northern and southern hemispheres, along with ancillary data on the physical and biological environment. The data contain a wealth of information that may be critical to assessments of the impacts of climate change on ice seal populations. To fully exploit the potential of these data and present them through the peer-reviewed scientific literature will require the creation of several scholarly manuscripts that integrate the research results across the many years of the studies and across the single-species focused projects. The NMML requires an experienced researcher to coordinate final analyses, drafting, revision, and submission of three journal articles for publication in the peer-reviewed literature. The synthesis and integration of a multi-year, multi-species ecological study and the authorship and publication of the results in the peer-reviewed ecological literature require an intimate familiarity with the research methods, the species, and the geographic study regions. Wildlife and Veterinary Consultants, has been a participant and collaborator in nearly every project of this ice seal research. This notice may reoresent the only official notice. This is a simplified acquisition with an estimated value of less than $50,000