Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

SOUTHEAST REGION DEALER AND INTERVIEW FAMILY OF FORMS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0013

This family of forms includes the various reporting instruments and procedures that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) uses to collect landings statistics and quota monitoring data from commercial seafood dealers and interviews with fishermen for effort and fishing locations data.

The South Atlantic wreckfish individual transferable quota (ITQ) program, implemented in 1992, requires fishermen (and dealers) to submit 100 lb and 500 lb coupons to help NMFS track shareholders’ individual quotas and the overall wreckfish quota. Coupons are distributed to wreckfish shareholders before the beginning of each fishing year. Shareholders give part of the coupon to the fishermen and part to the dealer. The fishermen must submit their portion of the coupon with their wreckfish logbook report and the dealers must submit their portion of the coupon with their monthly wreckfish dealer report. These coupons have not been included in this PRA collection as of yet because they are attached to the reporting form which is covered by this collection. However, because NMFS proposes some revisions to these coupons in this change request, NMFS also proposes to add them to this PRA collection.

This change request would modify the portion of the South Atlantic wreckfish ITQ coupons dealers must provide to NMFS with their monthly wreckfish dealer report. A change request is also submitted for OMB control no. 0648-0016 for the portion of the wreckfish ITQ coupons fishermen must provide NMFS with their vessel logbook report. The 100 lb and 500 lb wreckfish ITQ coupons are proposed to be revised to add the vessel identification number instead of the vessel permit number (to match the vessel with the permit number identified on the monthly wreckfish dealer report), remove the bar codes (because SEFSC staff is entering the data themselves), and add an additional row for the Federal dealer permit number (because there are now more Federal dealer permits being issued than there were numbers on the coupons). The fishing season dates, tracking number, and color of the coupons change on an annual basis. NMFS is seeking approval of these revisions for the 2014-2015 fishing year.

These revisions would not result in a change in the estimated time per response for the wreckfish dealer report.

Therefore, the respondent, response, burden and cost estimate, for OMB Control No. 0648-0013 would not change and remain at 5,499 (unduplicated) respondents, 13,917 responses, 1,542 hours, and $0 cost.