In a request for offer released Thursday, the department is looking for assistance with a website that is intended to be the “central repository and public interface” for information on state-managed marine fisheries. The project also involves creating a “California Marine Fisheries Data Explorer tool” (MFDE) that would let members of the public “view, filter and export summarized California commercial landing data.” Among the takeaways:
- State marine fisheries data is regularly sought out by “a suite of stakeholders and government organizations,” according to the RFO, with data requests coming in from “commercial landings, logbooks, commercial licensing and vessel registration,” the state recreational fisheries survey and others. Fish and Game code as well as federal data-sharing agreements limit the availability of data — and can result in information being redacted, leading to follow-up inquiries. State stakeholders and CDFW Marine Region staffers “would benefit from the development of a public-facing query tool” capable of summarizing commercial and recreational fisheries data and removing confidential information.
The MFDE would let these stakeholders find marine fisheries data on their own through a CDFW website. MFDE could also cut down on the number of requests for data received via the Public Records Act, which can require review by an environmental program manager. The Explorer would also be expected to update commercial and, eventually, recreational landings figures, replacing the current images with “interactive data visualizations.” MFDE would also be expected to “populate” California Commercial Landings reports on the CDFW website. - Key project requirements include using business intelligence tools to develop the MFDE with “multiple areas to visualize the data through set figures, allow custom data queries, and provide preset queries”; developing the tool so that CDFW can maintain it; ensuring that it provides “summarized, non-confidential data”; and creating a framework to eventually let recreational data be added, once the fisheries survey data warehouse is better developed. MFDE is currently seen as being divided into three areas: visualizations of figures shown in the Enhanced Status Reports in the Marine Species Portal; letting users filter commercial landings data by year, month, species ID, species name, major port area and so forth; and a third area for preset queries including the Top 10 Species in Pounds and Value by Year; California Commercial Landings — species landings in Pounds and Value by Major Port area by Month; and others.
CDFW’s Data and Technology Division (DTD) seeks “highly skilled specialists” with the experience and knowledge of how to create Web-based business intelligence tools. CDFW expects a team made up of members in the following roles, to deliver the project: project manager, solution architect, business analyst, Web/application developer and report developer. The team will work closely with CDFW, DTD and staff. - Minimum qualifications for contractor staff include at least five years’ experience developing reports and dashboards with business intelligence reporting tools like Microsoft Power BI; developing Web apps with Microsoft .NET using C#; and developing Web apps using HTML and JavaScript. Staffers must also have at least five years’ design and coding experience using SQL Server version 2008 or higher. Most CDFW IT staff are now working offsite due to department policies on the COVID-19 pandemic; should those policies still be in place at contract start, the contractor selected will be given the resources needed to do its work offsite. By contrast, should CDFW IT staff return to on-site work, contractor staff will also be expected to work onsite.
- Responses are due by 3 p.m. Feb. 5. Written questions are due by 3 p.m. Wednesday, with responses coming by 3 p.m. Friday. Interviews are expected to be held Feb. 8-18, and a notice of intent to award is expected Feb. 26. The contract term is five months with an optional three-month extension; it’s anticipated the contract will be fully executed March 1. Contract value is not to exceed $180,000.
