Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION

ALASKA INTERAGENCY ELECTRONIC REPORTING SYSTEM

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0515

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE: Add out-of-state landing report

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Region manages the groundfish fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council prepared the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (FMP) under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. The FMP is implemented under regulations at 50 CFR part 679.

eLandings is an interagency electronic reporting system used for reporting commercial fishery landings in Alaska. eLandings is used by participants to report landings and/or production data for groundfish, Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ), Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) halibut and sablefish, and IFQ/CDQ crab and Community of Adak golden king crab. This system is a collaborative effort of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the NMFS Alaska Region. eLandings provides continuous access to individual accounts by participants, which allows participants to more efficiently monitor their accounts and fishing activities.

Each year a few shoreside processors in the state of Washington receive fish from Alaska. Shoreside processors in Alaska are required to use eLandings to report landings and production; however, the shoreside processors not in Alaska are not required to use eLandings. These processors still are required to record and report fish received from Alaska.

Previously, these processors used shoreside processor daily cumulative production logbooks (DCPLs) and weekly production reports (WPRs) (both previously in OMB 0648-0213) to submit these data to NMFS. When eLandings replaced the DCPL and WPR, no procedure was created to collect these data from out-of-Alaska processors. This change request describes a procedure for these data to be submitted.

Groundfish

The manager of a shoreside processor that receives groundfish from a catcher vessel issued a Federal Fisheries Permit (FFP) under 50 CFR part 679.4(d) and that is required to have an Federal Processor Permit (FPP) under 50 CFR part 679.4(f) must use eLandings or other NMFS-approved software to submit a daily landings report during the fishing year.

If the processor is not located in Alaska, the manager of a shoreside processor must complete and submit to NMFS a separate out-of-state landing report for each shipment of groundfish and donated prohibited species caught in the groundfish fisheries.

The manager of a shoreside processor must record information onto the out-of-state landing report for each groundfish delivery (other than IFQ sablefish) provided by the operator of a catcher vessel, the operator or manager of an associated buying station, and from processors for reprocessing or rehandling product into eLandings or other NMFS-approved software. In addition, the manager must record discard or disposition of fish that occurred on and was reported by a catcher vessel; that occurred on and was reported by a buying station; and that occurred prior to, during, and/or after production of groundfish at the shoreside processor must be recorded on the out-of-state landing report. Discards and dispositions also must be recorded when no groundfish are delivered but the blue daily fishing logbook (DFL) (also part of eLandings) is submitted by a catcher vessel containing records of discards or disposition.

IFQ Halibut, IFQ Sablefish, and CDQ Halibut

A person who is issued a Registered Buyer permit under 50 CFR part 679.4(d)(3) and who receives IFQ halibut or IFQ sablefish from an IFQ permit holder or who receives CDQ halibut from a CDQ permit holder at any time during the fishing year is required to use eLandings or other NMFS-approved software to submit landings reports. If the processor is not located in Alaska, the Registered Buyer must complete and submit a separate out-of-state landing report for each shipment of halibut or sablefish.

The Registered Buyer or manager of a shoreside processor must enter information from a specific vessel by noon of the day following completion of the delivery and submit the completed Out-of-State Landing Report to NMFS by fax to: 907-586-7131.

An out-of-state landing report is included in this request and may be accessed on the NMFS website at http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/rr/forms/outofstateelandings.pdf.

This report is not expected to increase the cost or burden for eLandings (the currently estimated number of eLandings reports will cover these reports and this time per response for this report is estimated to be 35 minutes, the same as for the eLandings report) but will allow NMFS to have a more complete fisheries data set.

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