Justification for change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

SOUTHEAST REGION IFQ PROGRAMS

OMB CONTROL NO. 0648-0551

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) manages two commercial individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs in the Gulf of Mexico for red snapper, and for grouper and tilefish. This change request proposes to modify the Notification of Landing form currently approved under OMB Control No. 0648-0551. Regulations for the IFQ programs require a vessel owner or operator to notify NMFS before landing any commercially harvested species managed under the IFQ programs. Respondents may report via phone, or submit the information through an online form, or a form available through their vessel monitoring system (VMS). This change request would modify the IFQ Notification of Landing form submitted by respondents online and through their VMS.

NMFS uses the Notification of Landing form to track the time and location of landing, the dealer that the fish will be sold to, and the estimated weight of IFQ species to be landed. This change would modify the data entry method for recording the landing location and dealer, two fields currently contained within the form. Due to different software formats used online and by the multiple VMS vendors, there are different versions of the Notification of Landing form; however, differences are limited to appearance and pathways to access and enter requested information. Respondents are required to submit the same information across the online and VMS reporting platforms.

NMFS proposes to assign five-digit codes to each landing location and dealer to allow users the additional option to search and input information using these codes. On the online form version, NMFS proposes to add one additional column to each of the data entry tables for the landing location and dealer. The proposed column headings would be similar to "location code" and "dealer code," respectively. Respondents would be able to input the five digit codes to search for and select their desired landing location and dealer.

Respondents can also notify NMFS by using the vessel's VMS unit. The VMS vendors would add the same capability for landing location and dealers with the same five-digit codes. On the VMS form versions, these fields currently have drop down menus, which allow users to select from the predetermined menu of options. The proposed change to these fields is to eliminate the drop down menus and to replace them with five digit blank numeric fields. The two fields would allow the five digit codes for landing location and dealer to be entered manually. Currently, the landing location and dealer fields need to be updated occasionally to add new landing locations and new dealers for use by the commercial reef fish fleet. These software updates are burdensome to both NMFS and the commercial fishing fleet. Currently, a newly approved landing location may take approximately one year to appear on VMS software, which delays the ability to utilize the newly approved site. The proposed change to the VMS form versions would allow a newly approved site to be used within days. In addition, the change to the VMS form versions would reduce the need for further software updates, thereby resulting in cost savings to the government.

This change request would not result in a change to the estimated time per response; therefore, NMFS estimates that it would still require approximately five minutes to complete the IFQ Notification of Landing form.

Thus, the annual respondent, response, burden and cost estimate, for OMB Control No. 0648-0551 would not change and remains at 1,850 respondents, 22,695 responses, 1,762 hours, and $60,000.

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