Underwater Listening Station for whales

Trade Agreement: CETA / WTO-AGP / NAFTA / CFTA / FTAs with Peru / Colombia / Panama / Korea
Tendering Procedures: Suppliers on permanent list or able to meet qualification requirements
Competitive Procurement Strategy: Best Overall  Proposal
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Nature of Requirements: 

This requirement is for: Transport Canada

This requirement is open only to those Supply Arrangement Holders under FP920-170006 who qualified under the following optional requirements:

O1, O2, O5, O6, O7, O8, O11, O12, O13, O14O15, O16, O18, O19 and O20.

The following SA Holders have been invited to submit a proposal:

1) Jasco
2) Ocean Sonics
3) RTSYS
4) Turbulent Research

Requirement:
Transport Canada requires the deployment, operation and reporting of Autonomous Acoustic Recorders and Underwater Listening Stations for 5 years. 

Requirement details: 
The Government of Canada is committed to the protection and recovery of the whale populations (Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW), the North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) and the St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga (SLEB)) on both the east and west coast through many Federal initiatives addressing all threats: underwater vessel noise, ship strikes, prey availability and contaminants. 

The Innovation Centre at Transport Canada (TC) is working closely with other government departments, provinces, industry, academia and port authorities to reduce the propagation of underwater noise in areas known as whale habitats. Since 2015, TC has funded work under the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) program which aims at understanding and managing the impact of shipping activities on whales along the southern coast of British Columbia, one of the primary habitat of the SRKW. 

One of the biggest investments under ECHO is the installation of an advanced hydrophone Underwater Listening Station (ULS) in the Strait of Georgia to collect, in near real time, the sound signature of vessels calling on VFPA and mammals within the region. 

Other locations for a real time ULS within the Salish Sea were investigated in a feasibility study undertaken by ECHO in 2017.  Through the Whales Initiative, TC will deploy a new near real time ULS in Boundary Pass.  This ULS will be capable of capturing the vessel source level signatures of the majority of the incoming and outgoing traffic to/from the VFPA.  It will also collect marine mammal data and ambient noise data. This installation is planned to remain in place until March 31, 2023 and is expected to be operational by spring 2019.  The deployment of a temporary autonomous monitoring system in Boundary Pass, will be required until the near real time ULS is deployed and operational. 

The contractor shall deploy:

1) autonomous acoustic recorder(s) capable of capturing vessel source levels, marine mammal calls and ambient noise, in Boundary Pass, as an interim solution until the permanent ULS is deployed.  The coordinates for deployment should be at or around Latitude: 48o 45.59015’N and Longitude: 123o 3.85046’W

2) complete near real-time, near ANSI ULS capable of capturing vessel source levels, detecting and localizing marine mammal call, and measuring ambient noise in Boundary Pass.  The coordinates for deployment should be at or around Latitude: 48o 45.59015’N and Longitude: 123o 3.85046’W.  Spatial offset of arrays should be optimized to allow for triangulation for the localization of ships and marine mammal detection purposes.  This ULS must be deployed Spring 2019 and remain in operation until March 31, 2023.


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

Period of resulting contract: 1 November 2019 to 31 March 2023.

Contracting Authority: Shannon MacCuaig
Email: shannon.maccuaig@pwgsc.gc.ca
Phone: 873-469-3983
Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.