Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGES for

SOUTHEAST REGION PERMIT FAMILY OF FORMS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0205

Two changes are requested on the Federal Permit Application for Vessels Fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ):

1. Open Access Commercial Permits - South Atlantic Rock Shrimp Carolina Zone (RSCZ) permit application form, page 2. Limited Access/Moratorium Commercial Permits - South Atlantic EEZ Rock Shrimp (RSLA) – for transfer, renewal or duplicate requests.

A previous amendment specified a rock shrimp open access permit and a limited access permit, but the final rule (RIN 0648-AW19) implemented a limited access endorsement to the open access permit. As a result, some fishermen may not have realized they needed both the open access permit and the limited access endorsement, and failed to renew both the permit and the endorsement. To prevent this confusion in the future, the endorsement checkbox on the form is replaced with a limited access permit checkbox and both permits are renamed to clarify the geographic area for which they are valid: South Atlantic Rock Shrimp open access permit is renamed Rock Shrimp (Carolina Zone) and South Atlantic Rock Shrimp endorsement is renamed Rock Shrimp (South Atlantic EEZ) permit.

2. Limited Access/Moratorium Commercial Permits - Atlantic Tuna Longline (ATL) – for transfer, renewal or duplicate requests.

The application has been revised on page 2 to include a box under the Limited Access/Moratorium Commercial Permits section for an Atlantic Tunas Longline permit. This change has been made to reflect a shift in the administration of this permit from a contractor employed by the Highly Migratory Species Management Division (Aquilent) to the Southeast Region of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Southeast Region already administers the shark and swordfish limited access permits as described in OMB Control No. 0648-0205. The number of respondents will not change due to this transfer of administrative responsibility because a person requesting an Atlantic Tunas Longline permit must possess a valid shark or swordfish limited access permit (swordfish incidental, swordfish directed, shark incidental, or shark directed) to obtain the Atlantic Tunas Longline permit. Therefore, the respondents applying for the Atlantic Tunas Longline permit are from the same respondent pool applying for the shark or swordfish limited access permits on the Federal Permit Application for Vessels Fishing in the EEZ. There will also be no burden change, as only an additional checkbox is involved.

Once this change is approved, the option to request an Atlantic Tunas Longline permit will be removed from the Atlantic Tunas and Atlantic HMS Permit Family of Forms (OMB Control No. 0648-0327). As the Atlantic Tunas Longline permit is a separate application in the HMFS Permit Family of Forms, that subsequent change request will involve a burden reduction.