Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION
NORTHEAST MULTISPECIES DAYS AT SEA LEASING PROGRAM
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0475

As specified in 50 CFR 648.4(j), Confirmation of Permit History (CPH) is a permit status
designated for “…a person who does not currently own a fishing vessel, but who has an
owned and qualifying vessel that has sunk, been destroyed, or transferred to another
person…”. thereby preserving “the eligibility of the applicant to apply for a limited
access permit for a replacement vessel based on the qualifying vessel’s fishing and permit
history at a subsequent time…”.
The Days at Sea (DAS) Leasing Program was first implemented under Amendment 13 to
the Northeast (NE) Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to increase the
economic efficiency of vessel operations by allowing vessels to acquire additional DAS,
or lease unused DAS to another vessel. Amendment 13 prohibited permits held in CPH
from participating in these programs to slow the reactivation of fishing effort.
NE Multispecies Amendment 16 includes several revisions to the DAS Leasing Program
that are intended to eliminate unnecessary administrative procedures that would impede
participation in these programs. Because permits in CPH can be reactivated at any time,
the Amendment 13 prohibition created an administrative barrier to reactivation of such
effort. Amendment 16 would eliminate this administrative barrier by allowing permits
held in CPH to participate in the DAS Leasing Program without being activated by being
placed onto a vessel.
To accommodate this change in the regulations, the application to lease DAS has been
revised to include the collection of the permit status (permit is in CPH or on a fishing
vessel). The public reporting burden for the DAS Leasing Program Request Form will
not change with the inclusion of this additional question.