Vessel charter to carry out trawl surveys for snow crab populations on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

TITLE: Vessel charter to carry out trawl surveys for snow crab populations on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

TRADE AGREEMENTS: The requirement is subject to the provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP), the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT:

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada requires of the Contractor to provide the following:

- Completing one trawl tow at each predetermined station according to the snow crab trawling protocol. A total of 355 sampling stations will be predetermined and presented to the Contractor prior to the survey (or when renewing the contract) by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

- The sampling will be done using a 20-meter Norway lobster trawl provided by DFO.

The work at each station will only be considered complete when a trawl tow has been successfully done. A successful trawl tow is a five (5) minute tow with no tearing of the trawl, in which the trawl behaves normally, as observed by an independent acoustic system, regardless of the amount of crab caught. The DFO project leader on board will verify and confirm the success of each tow. 

DURATION OF CONTRACT

The period of the Contract is from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 with the option to renew for two (2) additional one (1) year periods.

ENQUIRIES – BID SOLICITATION

All enquiries must be submitted in writing to the Contracting Authority no later than SIX (6) calendar days before the bid closing date. Enquiries received after that time may not be answered.

PROCESS AND SELECTION METHODOLOGY

Highest Combined Rating of Technical Merit and Price

1. To be declared responsive, a bid must:
   1. comply with all the requirements of the bid solicitation; and
   2. meet all mandatory criteria; and
      1. obtain the required minimum of 70 points overall for the technical evaluation criteria which are subject to point rating.
         The rating is performed on a scale of 100 points.

         SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

There is no security requirement associated with this bid solicitation.