R--Intent to sole source - Literature review

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region 7, Alaska, intends to award a sole source, firm-fixed price contract with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Bronx, New York. The Service requires the WCS to conduct a thorough review of the scientific literature and agency reports concerning waterbird/seabird entanglement in fishing nets. The yellow-billed loon is an international species of concern, with the global population estimate at 16,650 to 21,000 birds, about 20-25 percent of which occur seasonally in Alaska. In 2004, multiple U.S. and Russian organization petitioned the USFWS to list the yellow-billed loon as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A thorough review of the scientific literature and agency reports concerning waterbird/seabird entanglement in fishing nets is the preliminary piece of a larger project planned by the USFWS and WSC. The literature review is a part of an overall project the USFWS and WSC has and will continue if funding sources become available. Work description: The WSC will first review the waterbird and seabird net-entanglement literature (scientific and agency reports where available) to identify 1) specific factors relate to net design, deployment, or fishery target that increase entanglements; 2) specific factors related to avian ecology that make birds most vulnerable to entanglement; and 3) compile a tool-box of approaches used elsewhere to mitigate bycatch. This notice is not a request for competitive proposals and the Government does not intend to accept proposals received.