NSAS ss new 010908 rev

SUPPORTING STATEMENT
NATIONAL SALTWATER ANGLER AND STATE EXEMPTION PROGRAM
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-xxxx

A.

JUSTIFICATION

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.
The National Saltwater Angler Registry and State Exemption Program (Registry Program) has
been established to implement recommendations included in the review of national saltwater
angling data collection programs conducted by the National Research Council (NRC) in
2005/2006, and the provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act, codified at Section
401(g) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), which
require the Secretary of Commerce to commence improvements to recreational fisheries surveys,
including establishing a national saltwater angler and for-hire vessel registry, by January 1, 2009.
A proposed rule to adopt regulatory measures to implement the Registry Program (Regulation
Identifier Number (RIN) 0648-AW10) will be published in the Federal Register.)
The NRC review found that current recreational survey approaches, which rely on random
contacts with residents of coastal county households to collect marine recreational fishing effort
data, result in significant survey over-coverage since relatively few households contain active
anglers, and under-coverage since some anglers do not live in coastal counties or they live in
coastal counties but do not have landline telephones. The review advised that over-coverage
results in severe sampling inefficiency and that under-coverage may lead to serious bias in the
resultant effort estimates since anglers from non-coastal counties are likely to have different
effort characteristics than those from coastal counties. To resolve these problems, the NRC
Panel recommended the development of and subsequent sampling from a comprehensive
national saltwater angler registry. Such a sampling frame could be developed either by
implementing a federal registration requirement or by expanding current state saltwater licenses
to include all saltwater anglers
In response to the NRC Panel’s findings and recommendations, Congress passed MSA §401(g),
which mandates the Secretary of Commerce to establish a program to: 1) improve the quality and
accuracy of current estimates of marine recreational fishing catch and effort, 2) to do so in a
manner that considers and, to the extent feasible, incorporates the NRC Panel’s
recommendations, and 3) to implement the program by January 1, 2009. As part of the
program, MSA §401(g)(1) requires the Secretary to implement a federal requirement for anglers
and for-hire vessels to register, and to provide identification and contact information, if they fish
in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), for Continental Shelf Resources beyond the EEZ or for
anadromous fish (i.e. those fish such as salmon, sturgeon, striped bass and shad which migrate
from ocean and coastal waters to estuaries and freshwater rivers to spawn) in any waters.
Further, the Secretary is to exempt from the federal registration requirement those anglers and
vessels that are licensed or registered by a state if the state provides sufficient identification and
contact information for use in recreational surveys. The resultant federal Registry Program must
address both the qualifications and procedures for exempting qualified states’ anglers and vessels
from the federal registration requirement and the process for federal registration of anglers and
vessels that are not exempted.
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Accordingly, the Registry Program will collect identification and contact information from those
anglers and for-hire vessels who are involved in recreational fishing in the US EEZ or for
anadromous fish in any waters, unless the anglers or vessels are exempted from the registration
requirement. The data that will be collected will include: for anglers – name, address,
telephone contact information and region(s) of the country in which they fish; for for-hire vessels
– owner and operator name, address, telephone contact information, vessel name and
registration/documentation number and home port or primary operating area. This information
will be compiled into a national and/or series of regional registries that will be used to support
surveys of recreational anglers and for-hire vessels to develop estimates of recreational angling
effort.
2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be
used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support
information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection
complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.
The data will be used continuously by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and
those states and regional data collection partnerships that conduct surveys of marine
recreational angling. Anglers and for-hire vessels will be randomly selected from the
registries and asked to provide information about recent fishing activity. The identification
and address information in the registry data base will be used to identify the resultant
survey record, and to eliminate duplicative registrations that could bias resultant survey
data. The contact information in the registry data base will be utilized to make actual
telephone contact for the purpose of interviewing the anglers and for-hire vessel operators.
These survey-based data collection methods are described in a separate information collection
request for the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, which has been previously
described and approved pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No.
0648-0052.
As explained in the preceding paragraphs, the information gathered has utility. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will
retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and
destruction, consistent with NOAA standards for confidentiality, privacy, and electronic
information. See response #10 of this Supporting Statement for more information on
confidentiality and privacy. The information collection is designed to yield data that meet all
applicable information quality guidelines. Although the information collected is not expected to
be disseminated directly to the public, results may be used in scientific, management, technical
or general informational publications. Should NMFS decide to disseminate the information, it
will be subject to the quality control measures and pre-dissemination review pursuant to Section
515 of Public Law 106-554.
3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of
information technology.
Registry information will be collected electronically and by telephone. A module of the NMFS
National Permit System (NPS) will be developed and utilized for the Registry. Angler and forhire vessel owners will be able to utilize that system to register online or by calling a toll-free
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telephone number. A registration number will be electronically provided and a registration card
will be available for downloading and printing by, or to be mailed to, the successful registrants at
their option.
Incorporating the registry process in the NPS will assure minimum inconvenience for anglers
and for-hire vessel owners in the process of complying with the registration requirement. It also
will assure the achievement of operating efficiency and data consistency and quality benefits to
NMFS through using an existing system that is consistent nationwide.
The information that is collected via the Registry program will not be made available to the
public via the Internet or any other means. Because the data to be collected is entirely personal
identification, address and contact information, it is not appropriate to make this data available.
4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.
The Registry program has been designed to prevent duplication of registration requirements.
In order to serve the purpose of supplying identification and contact information for all anglers
and for-hire vessels, it is only necessary for an angler or a for-hire vessel to submit that
information to a single registry. If the information can be obtained from another source, the
federal registration requirement can be waived.
Accordingly, if states can provide complete directories of anglers and/or for-hire vessels from
their license or state registry data bases, the states can be granted Exempted State status under
the Registry program, and their licensed or registered anglers and/or for-hire vessels will be
exempted from the federal registration requirement. Anglers who fish only on for-hire vessels
will be exempt, since the vessels themselves will be registered and surveyed. Also, any for-hire
vessel that is required to obtain a NOAA license or permit via the NPS under other fishery
management regulations will also be exempt from the registry requirement, since the vessel
information will be in the NPS data base, and can be accessed and added to the registry
directory.
5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities,
describe the methods used to minimize burden.
The for-hire vessels that will be required to register are small entities. Efforts utilized to
minimize the burden on these entities include:
a. minimizing the number of vessels that must register, by eliminating overlapping
requirements as noted in response # 4 above;
b. limiting the information that must be submitted to the minimal identification, address
and contact information required for a complete registry;
c. using the efficient National Permit System one-stop-shopping as the platform for
completing the registration requirement.
6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the
collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.
If a complete, annual registry of saltwater anglers and for-hire vessels is not instituted and
maintained, NMFS will not be able to correct the deficiencies in its marine recreational fishing
effort surveys that were described by the NRC panel. This will result in continued oversampling
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by using random-digit-dialing (RDD) approaches, and the attendant loss of efficiency that would
result from using sample frames that only includes licensed anglers. In RDD approaches,
sampling efficiency is limited by using sample frames that include non-household numbers, nonworking numbers and non-angling households. Currently, about 10 percent of all random-digitdialing contacts result in interviews with eligible households. Of these, less than 10% are
expected to be with households whose residents actually fished during the sampling period.
Therefore, only about 1% of all dialed telephone numbers actually succeed in acquiring angler
effort data. It is expected that use of an angler registry in lieu of RDD approaches will greatly
increase the success rate of such contacts, rendering the survey much more efficient and
therefore able to collect much more data for the same cost. Preliminary results from surveys that
use angler license databases as sampling frames have demonstrated that between 45% and 65%
of contacted individuals report fishing activity.
Continuation of the current use of RDD surveys will also fail to address the undersampling of
certain angling households. Anglers who reside in non-coastal counties or who do not have
landline telephones (i.e. cell-phone only) are not currently sampled in recreational fishing effort
surveys. The NRC Panel concluded that this could cause serious bias in the effort estimates
derived from the current surveys, and strongly recommended use of a universal saltwater angler
registry to address this bias problem.
Collection of the registry data annually, rather than less frequently, is consistent with the annual
cycle of state license issuance and NMFS for-hire permits. It is also consistent with the annual
time frame for the surveys that will utilize the registry data. An annual requirement will update
the identification and contact information annually, an appropriate time period to assure that
address and telephone contact changes are incorporated into the registry directory.
7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a
manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.
The collection is consistent with OMB guidelines.
8. Provide information on the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments
on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments
received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response
to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain
their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions
and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be
recorded, disclosed, or reported.
Implementation of the Registry Program is the subject of proposed rulemaking. The RIN is
0648-AW10. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in the Federal Register for
public comment.
The Registry Program has been developed by a team (“Registry Team”) that includes
representatives of the states, NOAA, regional fishery management councils and stakeholders.
Accordingly, the proposed registry approach reflects the diverse views of those persons. In
addition, the proposed elements of the program have been presented to several meetings of
interstate fisheries managers and regional fishery management councils.
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9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than
remuneration of contractors or grantees.
No payments or gifts to respondents are given under this program.
10. Describe any assurance or confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for
assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.
Registrants’ responses will be kept confidential as required by section 402(b) of the MagnusonStevens and NOAA Administrative Order 216-100, Confidentiality of Fisheries Statistics, and
will not be released for public use except in aggregate statistical form without identification as to
its source. Section 402(b) stipulates that data required to be submitted under an FMP shall be
confidential and shall not be released except to Federal employees and Council staff responsible
for FMP monitoring and development or when required under court order.
In addition, the information is subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) in that
the information collected will be retrievable by identifiable individual. The Registry data will be
included in the Permits System of Records, whose notice is currently under review by the
Department of Commerce General Law Office.
11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as
sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly
considered private.
No sensitive questions are asked.
12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.
(a) Recreational anglers: There is no specific estimate of the number of anglers who fish in the
EEZ or for anadromous fish in state waters. However, the Marine Recreational Fisheries
Statistics Survey (“MRFSS”) develops annual estimates of the number of resident and nonresident anglers age 5 and older who fish in saltwater in each coastal state except Alaska, Texas,
and, since 2002, Washington, Oregon, and California. Estimates are available for Alaska for
2005 from state surveys.
Anglers in the age group 5 to 15 years will not be required to register. MRFSS does not provide
an estimate of the number of anglers by age group. The 2006 National Survey of Hunting,
Fishing and Wildlife Associated Recreation (“National Survey”) published by the U. S Fish and
Wildlife Service does include an estimate of the participation in angling by age group for 2005.
Assuming that youth participation rates for saltwater and freshwater angling are the same, the
proportion of participation in saltwater fishing by youth in ages 5 to 15 is estimated in this
survey as 21.73%.
Anglers will be required to register federally only if they do not hold a fishing license or registry
number issued by a state which has been designated as an Exempted State under the Registry
Program. It is not possible to predict with certainty which states will be initially or eventually so
designated. However, it is the goal of the Registry Program to eventually work entirely with
state license or registry data, so that no anglers would need to be federally registered. At present,
eight coastal states have no form of saltwater angler license: Maine, New Hampshire,
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Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii. Several of these
states are actively considering licensing initiatives at least in part due to the federal Registry
Program. None of the U.S. Trust Territories require licenses at present; however, both Puerto
Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands are developing license regulatory initiatives.
Of the states who presently license their saltwater anglers, Alaska, Washington, Oregon,
California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina are expected to
qualify for Exempted State status under their current license structure. The states of Florida,
South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware have large exemptions to their license
requirements that exclude a significant proportion of anglers from their license-holder data base
and will therefore need to be addressed before they will qualify as Exempted States. Examples
of such exceptions include: a license exemption for any resident who fishes from shore, Florida;
a license that is only required while fishing in Chesapeake Bay, but not in the Atlantic Ocean,
Maryland. The states are actively considering changes to their license requirements to eliminate
these exemptions as a direct result of the Registry Program and their desire to qualify as
Exempted States.
Anglers from non-exempt states will be required to register only if they fish for anadromous fish
or if they fish in the EEZ. Many anglers fish primarily in state waters and will therefore only
need to register if they are fishing for anadromous fish.
In order to estimate a reasonable range of the number of anglers who would be subject to the
registry requirement, the following assumptions and estimating procedures were made:
(a) The states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina will be designated as Exempted States at the beginning of
the Registry Program, and their license holders will not need to register federally.
(b) Anglers from the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and
Hawaii (“non-exempt states”) will be required to register federally at the beginning of the
registration program.
(c) In using MRFSS estimates, only state resident anglers were counted. The out of state
anglers include people who fish in more than one state; therefore, using the non-residents would
result in multiple-counting of anglers.
(d) Based on the 2005 National Survey estimate of angler participation by age, the
number of anglers in each non-exempted state is reduced to 78.27% of the total MRFSS estimate
of the number of participants age 5 and above to account for anglers in the age group 5 to 15 .
(e) The number of anglers who fish for anadromous fish in each non-exempt state is
proportionate to the ratio of the number of trips (derived from MRFSS estimates) that targeted or
caught anadromous fish to the total number of trips for each state.
(f) The number of anglers in each non-exempt state who fish in the EEZ is proportionate
to the ratio of the estimated number of trips in the EEZ to the total number of trips for the state.
This analysis further assumes that: (1) the % EEZ Trips for #Total Anglers and #Age 16+ anglers
in any given state is constant, and (2) the mean # trips per angler do not exhibit a large degree of
variance within a state.
Applying the foregoing assumptions and estimating procedures, the estimated number of
anadromous fish anglers, age 16+, is derived from the following table, using the formula:
1. Total # of anglers X 0.7827 = number of age 16+ anglers
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2. # of age 16+ anglers X % of fishing trips in state and inland waters for which anadromous fish
were caught or targeted = estimated number of age 16 + anglers who will fish for anadromous
fish in state waters.
That is, in the table below, Column C is multiplied by Column F.
E. # of
F. %
G. # of
D. # Trips
C. # Age
Anadromous Anadromous
Age 16+
(Inland
16+Anglers
Trips (E/D) Anadromous
Trips
(B X
and State
Anglers (C
0.7827)
waters)
X F)
159,972
1,173,811
1,009,315
85.99
137,559

A.
State

B. Total
#
Anglers

ME

204,385

NH

104,802

82,029

432,769

314,712

72.72

59,651

MA

773,835

605,681

413,6915

2,594,234

62.71

379,823

RI

176,580

138,209

1,626,214

756,648

46.53

64,309

CT

336,090

263,058

1473730

676,653

45.91

120,769

NY

759,850

594,735

5,221,356

1,426,002

27.31

162,422

NJ

717,942

561,933

6,562,871

2,320,878

35.36

198,699

DE

136,924

107,170

1,102,716

200,678

18.19

19,494

MD

817,108

639,550

3,521,344

1,313,484

40.14

256,715

VA

668,345

523,114

3,788,449

675,277

17.82

93,219

SC

379,684

297,179

2,522,841

3,109

0.12

357

FL

3,743,808

2,930,279

26,490,256

1,615

0.01

293

HI

172,696

135,169

2,263,307

0

0

0

Total

1,493,310

The total estimated number of anglers over age 16 who fish for anadromous fish in inland and
state (i.e. non-EEZ) waters is 1,493,310.
The estimate of anadromous anglers does not include angling in the EEZ. Applying the
foregoing estimating procedures and assumptions to the MRFSS trip data, the estimate of the
number of EEZ anglers in non-exempt states is derived from the following table, using the same
formula elements: total # of anglers X .7827 = number of age 16 + anglers; # of EEZ trips by
age 16 + anglers = % of the total # of trips that were made in the EEZ X number of age 16 +
anglers.
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A.
State

B. Total #
Anglers

C. # Age
16+Anglers
(B X .7827)

E. # EEZ
Trips

F. %
EEZ
Trips
(E/D)

G. # EEZ Anglers
Age 16+ (C X F)

159,972

D. Total #
Trips
(all waters:
EEZ + state
waters)
1,199,624

ME

204385

24,194

2.02

3,231

NH

104,802

82,029

546,469

107,562

19.68

16,143

MA

773,835

605,681

4,727,735

586,998

12.42

75,226

RI

176,580

138,209

1,704,712

70,230

4.12

5,694

CT

336,090

263,058

1,477,688

2,205

0.15

395

NY

759,850

594,735

5,396,332

161,327

2.99

17,783

NJ

717,942

561,933

7,286,915

713,645

9.79

55,013

DE

136,924

107,170

1,178,483

74,585

6.33

6,784

MD

817,108

639,550

3,59,6315

72,872

2.03

12,983

VA

668,345

523,114

3,908,032

119,141

3.05

15,955

SC

379,684

297,179

2,669,899

147,057

5.51

16,375

FL

3,743,808

2,930,279

29,345,260

2,855,004

9.69

283,944

HI

172,696

135,169

2,644,092

380,786

14.40

19,464

Total

528,990

The total estimated number of persons who would need to register is the sum of the EEZ anglers
and those who fish for anadromous fish in non-EEZ waters: 1,493,310 + 528,990 =2,022,300.
Using this estimate of the number of anglers who would be required to register, the estimated
potential burden hours are as follows:
Estimated number of anglers: 2,022,300 x 2 minutes per registration = 4,044,600 minutes/60
minutes = 67,410 hours.
(b) For-hire vessels: There are 11,953 for-hire fishing vessels currently operating in the U.S., as
reported by the states as follows:

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State
CT
DE
GA
ME
MD
MA
NH
NJ
NY
NC
RI
SC

For-Hire
Vessels
202
175
188
155
784
963
87
963
636
776
230
241

State
VA
FL
AL
MS
LA
TX
CA
OR
WA
AK
PR
HI

For-Hire
Vessels
331
1194
123
34
221
900
440
124
107
2894
35
150

For-hire vessels will not be required to register under the National Registry program if they are
licensed or registered by a state that has been designated as an Exempted State for the for-hire
fishery, or if they hold a license or permit issued by NMFS. All coastal states except New Jersey
currently license or register for-hire vessels; New Jersey maintains a voluntary registry of forhire vessels. Since all states except New Jersey currently license for-hire fishing, it is expected
that most states will be designated as Exempted States for for-hire fisheries under the proposed
rule. Between the exemptions available to vessels from Exempted States and those remaining
that will have another NOAA-issued license or permit, it is expected that very few for-hire
vessels will need to comply with the registration requirement under the proposed rule for the
Registry Program. For purposes of this analysis, it is conservatively assumed that 20% of the
currently operating for-hire vessels will need to comply. Based on this range, the Burden Hours
estimate for the for-hire fishing vessels is as follows:
Assumed Proportion and
Number of For-Hire Vessels
Registering
20% of 11,953 = 2,391 vessels

Est. Mean Number of Minutes
Per Registration

Total Burden Hours

3

120 (7,173 minutes)

(c) Total program burden:
Category
Number of Contacts
Anglers
For-Hire Vessels

Burden Hours

2,022,300

67,410

2,391

120

2,024,691

67,530

Total
(d) Estimates of annualized labor costs to respondents
The estimate of annualized labor costs to respondents for the hour burden for complying with the
annual registration requirement is summarized in the following table, assuming a labor rate
equivalent of $25 per hour.
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Category

Maximum Burden Hours

Anglers

67,410

Labor Cost of Burden Hours
@$25
$ 1,685,250

For-Hire Vessels

12

$3,000

Total

67,530

$ 1,688,250

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or recordkeepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in #12
above).
These data collections will incur no cost burden on respondents beyond the costs of
response time.
14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.
Annual cost to the Federal government is approximately $14,000,000 divided as follows:
$12,000,000 in contract award money, $1,500,000 in printing, travel and related operation costs
and $500,000 in professional staff, overhead and computing costs.
15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or
14 of the OMB 83-I.
This is a new program.
16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and
publication.
Neither the angler nor the for-hire vessel registration data will be published.
17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the
information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.
N/A.
18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19 of the OMB
83-I.
There are no exceptions.

B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
The registry data collection does not employ statistical methods.

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