[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 131 (Friday, July 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44592-44593]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-16173]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. Chapter 35).
Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Title: West Coast Region Federal Fisheries Permits--Northwest.
OMB Control Number: 0648-0203.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular (revision and extension of a currently
approved information collection).
Number of Respondents: 537.
Average Hours per Response: Permit renewals, 20 minutes; Permit
transfers,
[[Page 44593]]
30 minutes; Sablefish ownership interest form, 10 minutes ; EFP
Applications, 32 hours; EFP Trip Notifications 2 minutes; EFP Harvest
Plans: 16 hours; EFP Data Reports: 2 hours;; EFP Summary Reports:
interim report, 4 hours; final report, 20 hours.
Burden Hours: 2,000.
Needs and Uses: This request is for extension of a currently
approved information collection.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1801) provides that the
Secretary of Commerce is responsible for the conservation and
management of marine fisheries resources in Exclusive Economic Zone (3-
200 miles) of the United States (U.S.). NOAA Fisheries, West Coast
Region--Northwest manages the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery in the
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Washington, Oregon, and California
under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. The
regulations implementing the Pacific Groundfish Fishery require that
those vessels participating in the limited entry fishery to be
registered to a valid limited entry permit. Participation in the
fishery and access to a limited entry permit has been restricted to
control the overall harvest capacity. The regulations implementing the
limited entry program are found at 50 CFR part 660, subpart G.
NOAA Fisheries seeks comment on the extension of permit information
collections required for: (1) Renewal and transfer of Pacific Coast
Groundfish limited entry permits; (2) implementation of certain
provisions of the sablefish permit stacking program as provided for at
50 CFR 660.231 and 660.25; and (3) issuing and fulfilling the terms and
conditions of certain exempted fishing permits (EFPs).
Also, NOAA Fisheries requires an information collection to
implement certain aspects of the sablefish permit stacking program
which prevents excessive fleet consolidation. As part of the annual
renewal process, NOAA Fisheries requires a corporation or partnership
that owns or holds (as vessel owner) a sablefish endorsed permit to
provide a complete ownership interest form listing all individuals with
ownership interest in the entity. Similarly, any sablefish endorsed
permit transfer involving registration of a business entity requires an
ownership interest form if either the permit owner or vessel owner is a
corporation or partnership. This information is used to determine if
individuals own or hold sablefish permits in excess of the limit of 3
permits. Also, for transfer requests made during the sablefish primary
season (April 1st through October 31st), the permit owner is required
to report the remaining tier pounds not yet harvested on the sablefish
endorsed permit at the time of transfer.
Applicants for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) must submit written
information that allows NOAA Fisheries and the Pacific Fishery
Management Council to evaluate the proposed exempted fishing project
activities and weigh the benefits and costs of the proposed activities.
The Council makes a recommendation on each EFP application and for
successful applicants, NOAA Fisheries issues the EFPs which contains
terms and conditions for the project including various reporting
requirements. The information included in an application is specified
at 50 CFR 600.745(b)(2) and the Council Operating Procedure #19. Permit
holders are required to file preseason harvest plans, interim and/or
final summary reports on the results of the project and in some cases
individual vessels and other permit holders are required to provide
data reports (logbooks and/or catch reports The results of EFPs are
commonly used to explore ways to reduce effort on depressed stocks,
encourage innovation and efficiency in the fishery, provide access to
constrained stocks which directly measuring the bycatch associated with
such strategies and evaluate/revise current and proposed management
measures.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations,
individuals or households, not-for-profit institutions; state, local or
tribal government.
Frequency: Annually, semi-annually, monthly and on occasion.
Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
This information collection request may be viewed at reginfo.gov.
Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce collections
currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.
Dated: July 5, 2016.
Sarah Brabson,
NOAA PRA Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-16173 Filed 7-7-16; 8:45 am]
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