Notice of Intent to negotiate sole source contract to InnovaSea

***The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Acquisition & Grants Office (AGO), NMFS Field Delegates, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with InnovaSea located in Bedford, Nova Scotia for purchase of Five (5) VR2AR-69kHz Acoustic Releases, Sixteen (16) VR2AR-X-69kHz Acoustic Releases (Extended Life), and associated accessories for field research projects in 2026. Required accessories include One (1) VR100 Transponding Hydrophone with 50 meter cable as required to effectively communicate with the acoustic moorings upon deployment and recovery across multiple deployment locations, and Ten (10) redeployment part kits that are single use and vital in the release mechanism of the units for retrieval.  The acoustic release units units must be able to communicate with a Vemco VR100 - 8 Channel DSP Manual Tracking Acoustic Receiver transmitting deck box with corresponding VHTx 69kHz Transponding Hydrophone to arm, and activate the acoustic release to release the moored instruments from their anchor for recovery.

***The sole source determination is based on NOAA’s requirement that InnovaSea is the only vendor that meets our specific needs, such as; the tested and tried reliability together with the SoundTrap 600 recorder, the ease and small size of the system, and the ability to receive, decode and log acoustic transmissions from VEMCO tags. Acoustic release systems are notorious for their failure to ‘release’, which when attached to an acoustic recorder full of essential data is of major importance. Our NOAA colleagues have tried a number of the acoustic releases however, upon pooling our experiences, the VEMCO VR2AR remains the most reliable and cost effective. Further, it is the only acoustic release jointly capable of receiving valuable transmissions from VEMCO acoustic Tags. This is the most cost effective and most reliable of acoustic releases currently on the market, and is only manufactured and sold by this company. Further, this is the only acoustic release that does double duty by also recording the tag transmissions from acoustically tagged fish. Innovasea is the regional VEMCO distributor, which has been leading the design and manufacturing in compact, reliable, lightweight, robust, and cost-effective releases (see IGE document). The VEMCO VR2AR acoustic releases and receivers are the only acoustic release that is compatible with these tag transmitters which have coded signals that require decoding to be used. Use of VEMCO VR2AR acoustic releases and receivers will facilitate cross-project comparisons to provide additional ecosystem context to the data being collected by our co-deployed passive acoustic recorders. Market research indicates there are no alternative vendors that sell combined acoustic releases and receivers capable of both releasing moored instruments from their anchor and receiving, decoding, and logging VEMCO acoustic tag transmissions, or that have the ability to communicate with SEFSC’s existing Vemco VR100 - 8 Channel DSP Manual Tracking Acoustic Receiver transmitting deck box with corresponding VHTx 69kHz Transponding Hydrophone to arm, and activate the acoustic release to release the moored instruments from their anchor for recovery.

Delivery Date: 6/1/2026

 ***This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can fully meet the government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.