As part of its fishery management
responsibilities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
collects certain information to determine whether a respondent
complies with regulations that pertain to the issuance, transfer,
ownership interest, or renewal of a Pacific Coast Groundfish
limited entry permit or exempted fishing permit. Also, NMFS
collects information from permit owners and vessel owners to assist
NMFS with its enforcement responsibilities. Exempted fishing permit
holders may be required to provide descriptions of planned fishing
activities, periodical data reports, preseason plans and summary
reports. The respondents are mainly groundfish fishermen or fishing
companies and partnerships. Other respondents include state
fisheries agencies, non profit groups, or fishing associations who
sponsor research carried out under exempted fishing
permits.
Program Change The estimated
number of transfers has been reduced from 150 to 130 responses per
year. A major reason for the reduction there is a proposed
regulation that would allow a vessel to be registered
simultaneously to both a trawl endorsed permit and fixed gear
permits (up to 3 sablefish endorsed permits). Currently, there are
about six permit owners who own both a trawl permit and up to 3
sablefish permits. Typically, at the start of the year these permit
owners will their vessel will be registered to a trawl permit, and
then in the spring, move the vessel off the trawl permit and
register the vessel to sablefish permit(s). In the fall, they
remove the sablefish permits and request that the vessel be
re-registered to trawl permit to the end of the year. Once both
types (trawl and fixed gear) of permits are allowed to be
registered simultaneously to a single vessel, for those who own
both types of permits, there will be no need to request such
transfers in the future. Also, the estimated number of responses
for ownership interest forms due to transfer has been reduced by 10
(from 40 to 30). This reduction is anticipated because the joint
registration regulation (which allows for simultaneous registration
of a vessel to both trawl and sablefish endorsed permits) will
eliminate the need to submit transfer requests for those who own
both types of permits. Some of the reduced number transfers will
involve sablefish permits, which would have required the submission
of ownership interest forms. The cost burden has been reduced
slightly due to the elimination of the notary requirement for the
transfer form and the ownership interest form. Previously, we
estimated the cost of the notary to be $10 per document and the
overall estimate of the cost of notarization to be $2,400. Also,
the ownership interest form and transfer form previously included
as part of the response required five minutes to have the form
notarized. As such, in this collection, the time burden has been
reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes for the ownership interest
form and from 30 minutes to 25 minutes for transfer forms. Total
Program Changes: Decrease of 30 responses, 29 hours, $2408.
Adjustment The previous costs reported for EFPs was -0-. In this
submission, there are costs for mailing (certified) data from
electronic technology trips resulting in an estimated cost of
$2,635. The estimated annual burden hours for EFPs has been
increased. We estimate that several vessels will test electronic
technologies (i.e.; video cameras) under an EFP. These are EFPs
applications that are beyond the scope of those normally received
for various research purposes. The purpose of these additional EFPs
is to test the effectiveness and costs of such technologies to
inform potential regulations that would allow use of such
electronic systems is lieu of observers (which are currently
required of all trawl IFQ vessels). Specifically, the number of EFP
proposals is estimated to increase from 10 to 15 each year.
Similarly, we anticipate the number of harvest plans and data
report to increase from 5 to 15 each year and summary reports to
increase from 5 to 7. Of significance is the increase in the
estimated number of total annual responses for data reports which
increase from 60 to 375. Data reports from vessels testing
electronic technologies will require submission of video hard
drives after several fishing trips and logbooks after every trip.
The number trips can vary by vessel and by year. Total Adjustments:
Increase of 334 responses, 1046 hours and $2,589.
$12,281
No
No
No
No
No
Uncollected
Kevin Ford 2065266115
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.
Limited Entry Permit Renewal
0203 rev_ext ss_070816.docx
0203 FR 81 12473 Notice 030916.pdf
Limited Entry Permit Renewal