Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0202
Northeast Region Permit Family of Forms
Action: Amendment 5 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan, Final Rule 0648-AX70
Change Request: This action would add a new reporting element to the vessel monitoring
system (VMS) and interactive voice response (IVR) reporting requirements authorized under
OMB Control Number 0648-0202 at the end of a vessel's trip. The purpose of this new reporting
requirement is to allow limited access monkfish vessels to land one additional monkfish daily
possession limit and have their days-at-sea (DAS) allocation charged accordingly to account for
the additional possession limit. Specifically this change would add a question to the call flow
procedure in the IVR system when monkfish vessels are declaring their landing at the end of a
trip. This question would ask if the vessel is declaring an extra monkfish possession limit. For
vessels that either voluntarily use VMS or are required to use VMS for another fishery, such as
the Northeast multispecies or sea scallop fisheries, a change to the software would enable vessels
to declare the additional monkfish possession limit as part of their landing report.
Public reporting burden for the monkfish trip limit overage notification requirement is estimated
to average a maximum of 30 seconds. These 30 seconds would be covered within the total 2minute estimated response time for landing notification.
Justification: Although this is a new reporting requirement under OMB Control Number 06480202, this action is expected to reduce the total number of monkfish trips for vessels that take
advantage of this new measure since they would be using their monkfish DAS at a higher rate in
exchange for being able to land more monkfish on a given trip. Thus this action would not
change the overall reporting burden associated with the existing VMS and call-in notification
requirements authorized under OMB Control Number 0648-0202.