Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Permit Family of Forms
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0327

Request:
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Management
Division would like to merge two related data collections into one (with no content-related
changes): Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 0648-0495, “Atlantic Highly
Migratory Species Vessel Chartering Permits” (Chartering Permits) into 0648-0327, “Atlantic
Highly Migratory Species Permit Family of Forms.” The resulting collection would maintain the
name on collection 0648-0327: “Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Permit Family of Forms”
(Atlantic HMS Permit Family of Forms). Once this merger is approved, OMB Control No.
0648-0495 would be discontinued.
Background:
In 2006, the HMS Management Division implemented the Chartering Permits program
consistent with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna’s
Recommendation on Chartering. A chartering permit allows the United States fishing vessels to
fish for HMS (i.e., tunas, swordfish, billfish, and/or sharks) within the exclusive economic zone
of other nations, consistent with the other country’s regulations. Vessel permits are given for
these activities. Since the HMS Management Division implemented this program, there has only
been one applicant, and the HMS Management Division does not expect to receive many
applications in the future. This collection, OMB Control No. 0648-0327, also consists of vessel
and dealer permits for HMS species. Therefore, due to the lack of chartering applicants it is not
an efficient use of government resources to maintain two separate collections for programs
generally addressed to the same applicant pool. The HMS Management Division would like to
merge OMB Control No. 0648-0495 into 0648-0327 in order to simplify the PRA renewal
process.
Reporting Burden:
The collection of information under Chartering Permits (OMB Control No. 0648-0495) is
authorized for 20 responses annually. The collection of information under Atlantic HMS Permit
Family of Forms (OMB Control No. 0648-0327) is authorized for 40,574 responses annually.
The new combined collection---with the OMB Control No. 0648-0327---would collect up to
40,594 responses per year.
The public reporting burden for OMB Control No. 0648-0495 is 8 hours (10 responses at 45
minutes each + 10 responses at 5 minutes each = 7.5 (8) hours). Thus, the new combined data
collection will create an estimated annual burden of up to 8,556 hours (8 hours under OMB
Control No. 0648-0495 + 8,548 hours under 0648-0327).
The total annual cost to the public from OMB Control No. 0648-0495 is $8. The total annual
cost to the public from 0648-0327 is $1,232,160. Therefore, the combined total annual costs
would be $1,232,168.