Flume Tank Services

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division, is conducting market research under FAR Part 10 to identify potential sources capable of providing specialized flume tank services and scale trawl manufacturing.

NOAA Fisheries AFSC is seeking to conduct flume tank studies to evaluate prototype trawl gear designs to support the modernization and standardization of bottom trawl survey gear used in the eastern Bering Sea, northern Bering Sea, Bering Sea slope, Chukchi Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska. The primary objective is to select a universal bottom trawl that can replace two legacy trawl designs—the 83-112 and Poly Nor’easter trawls—constructed with outdated materials that are increasingly expensive and difficult to procure.

These flume tank studies will involve the testing of two 1/8th scale model trawls: a modified "RACE Trawl" with a 3-bridle configuration, and a redesigned Poly Nor’easter trawl with updated bottom wings. Testing will take place at a flume tank facility capable of accommodating these models and must include:

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  Manufacturing of two 1/8th scale model trawls (including codends).

  
  


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  Construction of multiple bridle configurations.

  
  


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  A flume tank capable of continuous flow at 1 meter/second.

  
  


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  High-definition video and digital still image capture during trials.

  
  


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  Documentation of all flume tank settings and performance data.

  
  

The contractor must provide three full days (7 hours per day) of flume tank access and testing, including staffing, project management, and post-test collaboration with NOAA staff to verify and deliver all collected data. Deliverables include: digital stills, unedited HD video, and data sheets summarizing experimental metrics (e.g., headrope height, wing spread, angle of attack, door spread). Final data must be submitted to NOAA within one week of test completion.

This testing is essential to improving gear protocols, reducing material costs, minimizing deployment and retrieval times, and enhancing the precision and accuracy of survey data used for fisheries stock assessments in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

The anticipated period of performance is from August 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026.

Technical Point of Contact:

Shawn Russell

Marine Equipment Supervisor, RACE Division

Email: shawn.russell@noaa.gov

Phone: (206) 228-8446