Incidental Take of Marine Mammals During Specified Activities, 50 CFR 18.27 and 50 CFR 18, Subpart J
Revision of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
Approved with change
11/28/2007
06/01/2007
table that charts list comparision
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
11/30/2010
36 Months From Approved
11/30/2007
97
0
141
792
0
2,027
0
0
0
The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 directs the Department of the Interior to allow incidental taking of marine mammals upon request by U.S. citizens engaged in certain activities. The Fish and Wildlife Service will use the information to verify the finding required to issue incidental take regulations, to decide if we should issue an LOA, and, if issued, what conditions should be contained in the LOA. In addition, we will analyze the information to determine impacts to the marine mammals and the availability of those marine mammals for subsistence purposes of Alaskan Natives.
We estimate that there will be 97 responses for this information collection requirement, totaling 792 burden hours. This is a decrease of 44 responses and 1,235 burden hours from our previous request. Due to input from industry representatives and a refinement of information collected during the last 3 years, we have made adjustments to the number of responses and burden hours by: (1) reducing the number of annual LOA requests from 70 to 12 for the Beaufort Sea; (2) reducing the burden hours for completing the onsite monitoring from 12 hours to 1.5 hours due to industry's refinement of monitoring practices and use of email; (3) increasing the burden estimate for an application for regulations from 200 to 300 hours; and (4) increasing the burden estimate for completion of an LOA request from 8 to 24 hours.
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.