Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
ALASKA eLANDINGS ELECTRONIC REPORTING SYSTEM
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0515
Minor adjustments associated with a final rule (RIN 0648-AX89) to modify the information
recorded by AFA and CDQ trawl catcher/processors for the eLandings production report.
The Bering Sea pollock fishery is the largest single-species fishery, by volume, in the United States.
Pollock is harvested by fishing vessels using trawl gear, which are large nets towed through the water.
Chinook salmon (a prohibited species in the groundfish fisheries off Alaska) and pollock occur in the
same locations in the Bering Sea and are, therefore, caught in the same nets. The Bering Sea pollock
fishery catches up to 95 percent of the Chinook salmon taken incidental in the Bering Sea/Aleutian
Islands (BSAI) groundfish fisheries.
The software eLandings provides continuous access to individual accounts by participants. The
registration, landings report, discard and disposition reports, and production reports are submitted to
eLandings through Internet data entry at http://elandings.alaska.gov. For motherships and
catcher/processors that do not have Internet service, a Desktop Client Application (software package) is
used to generate files for submitting to NMFS via email.
The final rule for Amendment 91 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and
Aleutian Islands Management Area (RIN 0648-AX89) revises requirements for the American Fisheries
Act (AFA) and Community Development Quota (CDQ) trawl catcher/processors using eLandings to
submit production report information. In eLandings, the operator must now enter processor identification
information, groundfish production data, and groundfish and prohibited species discard or disposition
data for all prohibited species except salmon.
This change request is to remove the prohibited species discard or disposition data for all salmon from the
eLandings Report. It will now be reported via the Electronic Logbook application under OMB Control
No. 0648-0213 (see change request submitted concurrently with this one).
The removal of salmon PSC information will not affect burden or costs. These responses are part of larger
reports, and take only a few seconds, with a total burden decrease of less than 1 hour.

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