The Marine Mammal Protection Act
(MMPA) requires any commercial fisherman operating in a Category I
and II fishery to register for a certificate of authorization that
will allow the fisherman to take marine mammals incidental to
commercial fishing operations. Category I and II fisheries are
those identified by NOAA as having either frequent or occasional
takings of marine mammals.
Adjustments: As registration is
integrated with existing federal and state commercial fishing
license/permit registration, separate MMAP registration is only
required for non-permitted fisheries. We do not anticipate any
renewals and decrease our response estimate from 800 to 600
accordingly. Also, the average response time is longer, as renewals
were estimated to take 9 minutes only; while new requests take 15
minutes. There is an adjustment to recordkeeping/reporting costs,
based on postage increase.
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.