Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

ALASKA AMERICAN FISHERIES ACT (AFA) REPORTS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0401

JUSTIFICATION: This information collection is revised by removing the American Fisheries Act (AFA) Catcher Vessel Intercooperative Agreement and the AFA Annual Catcher Vessel Intercooperative Report and placing them into the revised Alaska Council Cooperative Report collection, OMB 0648-0678, Alaska Council Cooperative Reports.

In the last decade or more, the Council has developed several cooperative programs as options in larger catch share programs. As part of those cooperative programs, the Council required that cooperatives submit an annual written report detailing various activities of the cooperative. These reports are intended to be a resource for the Council to track the effectiveness of the cooperatives and their ability to meet the Council’s goals. Additionally, they are a tool for the cooperatives to provide feedback on the programs. Regulation provides a framework for the minimum required information for most of the reports, while the Council has the flexibility to augment this framework with additional voluntary information requests that may be pertinent to current issues in the fishery.

This request is one of several to combine voluntary, non-regulatory cooperative report elements under OMB Control No. 0648-0678.

This change will reduce the cost and burden of this program. Removal of these two information collections will reduce the total burden by 2 responses, 80 hours and $2 in recordkeeping/reporting costs.