Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION

ALASKA ELANDINGS ELECTRONIC REPORTING SYSTEM

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0515

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE: Change to eLandings Mothership Landing Report, adding checkbox to indicate catcher vessel movement to avoid Chinook salmon – due to associated proposed rule, RIN 0648- BA80.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Region manages the groundfish fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (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. (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The FMP is implemented under regulations at 50 CFR part 679.

In December 2009, the Council recommended that NMFS implement the Chinook Salmon Economic Data Report Program to evaluate the effectiveness of Chinook salmon prohibited species catch (PSC) management measures for the Bering Sea pollock fishery that were implemented under Amendment 91 to the BSAI FMP (5 FR 53026, August 30, 2010).

NMFS manages the Bering Sea pollock fishery under the American Fisheries Act (AFA)

(16 U.S.C. 1851). The AFA “rationalized” the Bering Sea pollock fishery in part by allowing for the formation and management of fishery cooperatives in the three pollock sectors (catcher/processor, mothership, and inshore). A separate western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program manages a portion of the Bering Sea pollock fishery.

AFA fishing vessels harvest pollock using pelagic (mid-water) trawl gear, which consists of large nets towed through the water by the vessel. At times, Chinook salmon and pollock occur in the same locations in the Bering Sea. Consequently, Chinook salmon are incidentally caught in the nets as pollock is harvested. This halibut incidental catch is called halibut bycatch and is also called halibut prohibited species catch (PSC). Chinook salmon are defined as a prohibited species because they are caught by a vessel issued a Federal Fisheries Permit under § 679.4(b) while fishing for groundfish (pollock) in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) or Gulf of Alaska.

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)/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.

A new PSC accounting census of all Chinook salmon for operators of AFA and CDQ catcher/processors and catcher vessels using trawl gear is used as a basis to monitor and enforce the Chinook salmon PSC allocations. NMFS would collect new information through eLandings on vessel movements on the fishing grounds to determine any differences between movements related to avoidance of salmon and vessel movements that occurred for other reasons. NMFS would use the movement information to compare Chinook salmon PSC avoidance between individual vessels and by various vessel characteristics. Chinook salmon PSC rates could be merged with this information by vessel to assess how these PSC rates change prior to and following a change in fishing location. Movement data combined with other management data could support assessment of a vessel’s voluntary decisions to leave fishing grounds to avoid Chinook salmon PSC.

Whenever the operator of an AFA catcher vessel chooses to move the vessel primarily to reduce Chinook salmon PSC, the operator would indicate each change in location for any haul by checking a vessel movement box in the trawl gear. The Chinook EDR Program revised the format of the trawl gear daily fishing logbook (DFL) by adding a single column for a checkmark.

The mothership eLandings landing report is revised with the addition of a “checkbox” on the landing report data entry screen. The mothership operator will mark the checkbox when a catcher vessel using trawl gear delivers pollock to the mothership and indicates a move from the original fishing location to a new fishing location in an effort to avoid and thus reduce Chinook PSC.

The catcher vessel operator routinely provides the blue DFL logsheet (the discard copy) to the mothership operator when the pollock delivery is complete. The new data resulting from the movement checkbox will allow NMFS to determine any differences between movement related to avoidance of Chinook salmon and other vessel moves.

The affected motherships are already users of eLandings. This change to this collection of information does not add any participants, require additional training of the users, nor impose a significant impact on small entities. Costs and burden are not expected to change as a result of this action.

The mothership operation may complete the landing report through eLandings online through the NMFS Alaska Region website at http://elandings.alaska.gov.

In addition to creation of the Chinook Salmon Economic Data Report (EDR) (see OMB 0648-0633), NMFS will revise this collection, OMB No. 0648-0515, OMB No. 0648-0634 (Groundfish Family of Forms), and OMB No. 0648-0401 (AFA Reports) to obtain additional data for the Chinook salmon analysis. This action changes the existing collection of information in support of the associated rule, RIN 0648-BA80, and supports the new Chinook Salmon EDR Program managed under the AFA.

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