Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
NORTHEAST REGION LOGBOOK FAMILY OF FORMS
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0212
The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that conservation and management measures must prevent
overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery. These
measures must be based on the best scientific information available. Section 303(a)(5) of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act allows the Secretary to collect specific types of information that would
identify the catch by species and other information regarding the time and location of fishing
effort. This information is most often collected in the form of Vessel Trip Reports (VTR) and
weekly catch reports via an Interactive Voice Response System.
Amendment 16 to the Northeast (NE) Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) includes a
number of modifications to existing reporting and recordkeeping requirements to collect more
accurate and timely data necessary to monitor catch in the fishery. Among these provisions is a
revision to the reporting frequency of VTRs from monthly submissions to weekly submissions.
Although this modification was included in the proposed rule to implement Amendment 16 and
commented on by the public, this requirement was inadvertently omitted from the Amendment
16 Paperwork Reduction Act collection.
Modifications to the VTR reporting frequency will apply to vessels permitted with any NE
multispecies permit (including both limited access and open access). All other permit holders
will be required to submit VTRs on a monthly basis. Therefore, the burden and costs associated
with the completion and submission of VTRs on a weekly basis have been changed to reflect this
requirement.
With 3,200 multispecies permit holders changing from monthly to weekly reporting, there will
be an additional 128,000 annual responses (additional 40 responses per vessel (3,200 * 40)) and
11,200 hours (additional 3 hours, 30 minutes per vessel (3,200 * 3.5)). Recordkeeping/reporting
costs will increase by $57,600 (additional $18 per vessel (3,200 * 18)).