---
title: "Aerial Survey of Areas in the Central North Sea for Seabird and Marine Mammals Species for the POSEIDON Project"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEFRA NETWORK ETENDERING PORTAL"
published: "2023-01-09"
---

# Aerial Survey of Areas in the Central North Sea for Seabird and Marine Mammals Species for the POSEIDON Project

Buyer: DEFRA NETWORK ETENDERING PORTAL  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4

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## Summary

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Network eTendering Portal has awarded a contract for "Aerial Survey of Areas in the Central North Sea for Seabird and Marine Mammal Species for the POSEIDON Project" to APEM Ltd. The procurement process involved a limited award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition. The contract, with a value of £524,980.19 in GBP, was signed on 2023-01-09. The service category for this contract is aircraft operating services, with the main focus on digital aerial surveys of seabirds and marine mammal species in the central North Sea region.

This tender presents an opportunity for businesses involved in aircraft operating services, particularly those with expertise in conducting digital aerial surveys of wildlife species. The contract requirements include conducting seasonal aerial surveys over specific timeframes, processing imagery to identify wildlife, and producing detailed survey reports and data outputs. Businesses specialising in environmental protection and research and development, particularly SMEs with experience in high-precision surveying and data analysis, would be well-suited to compete for this contract.

## Notice

There are four core objectives for this contract. These are to: a) Conduct four, seasonal, high precision digital aerial surveys of the study area in the central North Sea. Survey data are to be collected using digital video or still imagery at a minimum of 1.5 cm Ground Surface Distance (GSD) to confidently capture and identify to the lowest taxonomic level possible all birds (in flight and on the water) and marine mammals within the surveyed area. Seasons are defined as: 1) December 2022 2) January - March 2023 3) April - June 2023, and 4) July - September 2023. Whilst we recognise the challenges of surveying large areas to prescriptive timetables, we would suggest contractors aim for the middle month of survey seasons where practical, and limit as far as possible the total time required to survey the study area within a season. Where surveys have to take place at the beginning or end of seasons, Natural England would appreciate discussions to ensure seasons are separated to an acceptable degree. b) process imagery to identify all birds, marine mammals, and other objects of interest captured to the lowest taxonomic level possible; c) Quality Assure results so that pre-agreed data standards are met (e.g. to meet MEDIN standards, JCDP data standards for archival in marine data repositories such as the Marine Data Exchange); d) produce ArcGIS layers, associated metadata, accompanying .csv files, etc. and four brief reports (one for each of the survey seasons) detailing survey effort and observations for each individual survey within pre-agreed timeframes, likely to be within 6 - 8 weeks of data collection. Files provided should quantify locations, dates and times of surveys in a clearly communicated coordinate system and/or projection, regardless of whether animals were sighted or not.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Digital aerial surveys of seabirds and marine mammal species.

### Procurement Information

This is a call-off from a framework 'Digital Aerial Surveys for Seabirds and Marine Mammals in English and Welsh Waters, framework agreement'.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000534-2023 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 9 Jan 2023 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 9 Jan 2023 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £524,980 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEFRA NETWORK ETENDERING PORTAL |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1P 3JR |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | APEM |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 60 - Transport services (excl. Waste transport)
- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 60445000 - Aircraft operating services
- 73300000 - Design and execution of research and development

## Release History

- 9 Jan 2023 at 13:34 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000534-2023

## Notice URLs

- https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0395e4.json.