Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

PACIFIC COAST GROUNDFISH TRAWL (PCGT) RATIONALIZATION PROGRAM PERMIT AND LICENSE INFORMATION COLLECTION

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0620

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northwest Region is requesting two non-substantive changes to the information collection referenced above.

Vessel Account Request Form

The current regulations at 50 CFR 660.140(e)(2) require that a vessel owner make a written request to NMFS to set up an online vessel account. The current collection describes the information required to be submitted (in writing) by a vessel owner to set up the vessel account. Currently, the Region’s Web site has an optional form for vessel owners (which they can print/fill out and mail to NMFS) to request a vessel account; alternatively, the applicant may send a letter or email with all of the information outlined on the Web site.

We request that the attached vessel account request form be included in the current information collection and that vessel owners be required to submit this form to establish a vessel account. The vessel account form requires specific information currently detailed in the existing information collection. Because there was a larger than anticipated number of vessels and new vessel owners entering the shorebased IFQ groundfish fishery in this first year, for the future we believe a standardized, OMB-approved form would facilitate registration of a vessel account.

The Pacific Coast Groundfish catch shares program (also known as Shorebased Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program) was implemented in January 2011, and after one year, the Region has established 152 vessel accounts. The number of vessel accounts has surpassed our original estimate of 120 for the initial year of the program. Also, the existing collection estimates that an additional 10 vessel accounts will be requested each year after the initial year of the program. Based on experience in the first year of the program, we now estimate that 20 vessel accounts will be requested each year.

We have revised our burden estimate because it appears that some Alaska vessels that fish under the sablefish IFQ program in the North Pacific are now interested in participating in the Pacific Coast IFQ program. Additionally, existing companies are using other vessels that previously did not participate in the shorebased IFQ fishery and/or new companies are entering the fishery by buying trawl vessels and permits from entities that are retiring or leaving the fishery. The sale of a vessel requires that the new vessel owner establish a new vessel account.

The revised time burden is provided below. The number of new vessel account respondents increases from 10 to 20 per year and the corresponding time burden increases from 5 to 10 hours per year. There will be an increase in postage cost of 10 x $0.45 or $4.50.

ADDITIONAL BURDEN AND COST

Collection	Responsible Party	# of Respondents	Frequency of Response per yr	Total # of Responses per yr	Ave. Time per Response	Annual Time Burden	Annual Cost Burden
New Vessel Account Request Registration/Renewal (ongoing)	Vessel Owner	10	1	10	30 minutes	5 hours	$4.50 ($5)

Addition of a Small Business Certification Section

Currently, NMFS Northwest Region does not request information from participants in the West Coast groundfish catch shares program certifying whether they are a small business as defined by the Small Business Administration (SBA). We are requesting authorization to add a small business certification section to two existing forms included in the subject collection: 1) trawl ownership interest form and 2) first receiver site license annual registration form.

The reason for this request is to obtain information on whether or not business entities participating in the West Coast groundfish catch shares program are small businesses (as defined by the Small Business Administration). Respondents will need to read through the criteria on the forms to determine their classification. The small business certification appears in Section C in both the first receiver site license and trawl ownership interest form.

The Region requires this information because we anticipate NMFS will prepare future regulations to improve and enhance the program and as part of that effort, the Region will need to prepare Regulatory Flexibility Act analyses. Information about how many participating business entities are considered small businesses will be important to preparing these analyses. The respondents will be quota share permit owners, vessel owners who are participating in the catch share program and first receivers of groundfish quota landings.

The time required to respond to this single question will be minimal and is covered under the existing estimated time burden. All QS permit owners and vessel owners would be required to respond to this question as part of renewal of their permit/accounts each year.

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