Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE
NORTHEAST REGION PERMIT FAMILY OF FORMS
OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0202
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing a change to OMB Control No. 06480202, Northeast Region Permit Family of Forms, to add a request for seafood dealer email
addresses and cellular telephone (cell phone) numbers for dealers acquiring and renewing
permits.
The Northeast Regional Office (NERO) is designing a dealer email notification system that
would enable rapid communication with all permitted dealers. In addition, a program is being
created that will provide dealers with the option to go “paperless” and receive all
communications from the NERO electronically through email. However, the NERO does not
currently have a complete list of dealer email addresses. This change request adds a line for
dealers to include their email address on the Federal Northeast Seafood Dealer Permit
Application and Renewal Form.
Currently, there are approximately 400 dealers that have provided an email address to the
Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Survey Program. These email addresses will be automatically
downloaded into the permit renewal forms. Dealers for which no email address is available, of
which there are approximately 350, will be required to include an email address in their permit
renewal form or through an online system in order to receive their annual dealer permit.
Assuming all 350 dealers need to acquire an email address (this would be the maximum number,
as most of these dealers likely already have an email account), it is expected to take 5 minutes to
establish an email account, for a total of 29 hours (1740 minutes/60 minutes). There is no
additional public cost associated with this change as there are several options for no-cost email
accounts. All permitted dealers also already have access to the internet, as electronic reporting is
required.
Once an email address is established with the NERO, dealers will be able to edit their email
addresses or add new additional addresses through the online system.
We are also adding the cell phone line on the application, only for those who already have a cell
phone and would like to give us the number.
There will be no additional responses to this information collection, as the email address and cell
phone number are part of the permit application. A maximum of 29 hours will be added to the
current burden of 28,737, for a new total of 28,766.