Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION

ALASKA REGION LOGBOOK FAMILY OF FORMS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0213

JUSTIFICATION: This action revises a data element, “catcher/processor longline or pot gear daily cumulative production logbook” in the existing collection due to an associated proposed rule, RIN 0648-BB67.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) manages the groundfish fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 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 & Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) as amended in 2006. Regulations implementing the FMP appear at 50 CFR part 679.

Owners of catcher/processors possessing a License Limitation Program (LLP) license endorsed for longline gear, catcher/processor fishing, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) operations, and Pacific cod must use additional catch monitoring measures, designed to enhance catch accounting, when fishing in the BSAI or Gulf of Alaska (GOA) at any time when Pacific cod is open to directed fishing in the BSAI and at all times while groundfish Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) fishing.

Thirty-three catcher/processors currently possessing LLP licenses that allow directed fishing for Pacific cod in the BSAI with hook-and-line gear must carry and use an electronic logbook (ELB) to report all Pacific cod catch for each set. Pacific cod total allowable catch (TAC) and halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) are each apportioned specifically to this subsector. Because no additional LLP licenses may be issued, and no other group of vessels may harvest this allocation, the owners of these LLP licenses have been able to form a voluntary fishing cooperative to which the owners of all of the vessels belong. This cooperative has effectively created a quota type fishery. This requirement will increase the speed and accuracy of data transmission to NMFS and will assist in accurate quota monitoring.

The reporting requirements for the catcher/processor longline or pot gear daily cumulative logbook (DCPL) are removed for certain catcher/processors with this action; the electronic logbook (see OMB 0648-0515) is used in place of the DCPL by freezer longliners (catcher/processors) named on License Limitation Program licenses (LLPs) endorsed to catch and process Pacific cod at sea with hook-and-line gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI). The requirement to maintain a catcher/processor longline DCPL is removed for thirty-three catcher/processors, leaving 97 longline respondents using the longline DPCL. This revision would result in reduced burden of 4,519 hours in respondent burden. There is no change in recordkeeping/reporting cost, as there is none associated with these responses.

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