7G--Special Notice of Intent to Sole Source Award

This document is a Single Source Justification under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Joint Administrative Operations. The Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWCO) seeks to procure proprietary acoustic telemetry equipment from Innovasea (formerly Vemco) to expand its fisheries research and monitoring operations. The primary justification for this sole-source acquisition is technology compatibility. Innovasea is the exclusive supplier of acoustic receivers and tags utilized by all participating agencies in the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS), which is funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Utilizing any other brand of telemetry equipment would cause incompatibility issues with existing deployed hardware and prevent integration into the Great Lakes-wide GLATOS data sharing network. Consequently, no other manufacturers are capable of fulfilling this requirement. The program office has certified that the justification is accurate, and the contracting officer has approved the sole-source determination, confirming the cost is deemed fair and reasonable because Innovasea is the unique provider of the required compatible technology.