Under Amendment 18A to the Fishery
Management Plan for Reef Fish Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico,
owners of vessels with valid permits were required to install
vessel monitoring systems (VMS) on their vessels. VMS units
automatically send periodic reports on the position of the vessel.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) uses the reports to
monitor the vessel's location and activities while enforcing area
closures.
PL:
Pub.L. 194 - 265 303 Name of Law: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Management and Conservation Act
The changes in burden hours and
costs are program changes resulting from attrition in the fishery,
no longer counting the automatic VMS transmissions as responses and
burden hours (only as costs) and the removal of start up costs
except in the case of certain transfers. Responses would have
decreased from 10,054, 892 to 7,737,995, based on the reduction of
the number of affected vessels from 1,145 to 882. Based on the
recent clarification from OMB that VMS automatic transmissions are
not counted as responses and burden, they were further decreased to
11,755. Hours would have decreased to 4,144 based on fleet
shrinkage but were further decreased to 2,348. Costs were reduced
from $2,460,585 to $858,027. Previous start-up costs were
$2,229,418, now reduced to $93,333, due to VMS purchase now being
required for only 80 transfer vessels per year, rather than 1,121
plus 318 transfers. However, recordkeeping/reporting costs which
would have decreased, based on fleet shrinkage, instead increased
from $230,552 to $764,694, as, in the initial request: o The $250
annual maintenance cost was inadvertently omitted o The cost of VMS
transmission, already an annual amount, was incorrectly divided by
3 (i.e. re-annualized) and o Only the 1,121 vessels still needing
to install the VMS were counted for transmission costs, instead of
all 1,145.
$361,900
No
No
Uncollected
Uncollected
No
Uncollected
Jason Rueter 727
824-5350
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.