30-day FRN

Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 11 / Wednesday, January 17, 2018 / Notices
Dated: January 10, 2018.
Emily H. Menashes,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018–00666 Filed 1–16–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration

ethrower on DSK3G9T082PROD with NOTICES

Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will
submit to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for clearance the
following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the
Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35).
Agency: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Title: Alaska American Fisheries Act
(AFA) Reports.
OMB Control Number: 0648–0401.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular (extension of
a currently approved information
collection).
Number of Respondents: 8.
Average Hours per Response: AFA
cooperative contract, 8 hours; annual
cooperative report, 16 hours; inshore
cooperative weekly catch report, 45
minutes; incentive plan agreement (IPA)
amendment, 50 hours; incentive plan
agreement disapproval appeals, 4 hours;
IPA annual report, 80 hours.
Burden Hours: 599.
Needs and Uses: On October 21, 1998,
the President signed into law The
American Fisheries Act, 16 U.S.C. 1851
(AFA). The AFA authorizes the
formation of fishery cooperatives in all
sectors of the Bering Sea and Aleutian
Islands Management Area (BSAI)
pollock fishery, grants antitrust
exemptions to cooperatives in the
mothership sector, and imposes
operational limits on fishery
cooperatives in the BSAI pollock
fishery. The National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) issues a single pollock
allocation to each cooperative, and the
cooperative may make sub-allocations of
pollock to each individual vessel owner
in the cooperative.
With respect to the fisheries off
Alaska, the AFA Program is a suite of
management measures that fall into four
general regulatory categories:
• Limit access into the fishing and
processing sectors of the BSAI pollock
fishery and that allocate pollock to such
sectors (50 CFR 679.64).
• Govern the formation and operation
of fishery cooperatives in the BSAI

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pollock fishery, including filing of
cooperative contracts (50 CFR 679.61
and 679.62).
• Protection of other fisheries from
spillover effects from the AFA (50 CFR
679.64).
• Govern catch measurement and
monitoring in the BSAI pollock fishery,
including filing of annual reports and
completing and submitting inshore
catcher vessel pollock cooperative catch
reports (50 CFR 679.63).
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations.
Frequency: Annually and on occasion.
Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory.
This information collection request
may be viewed at reginfo.gov. Follow
the instructions to view Department of
Commerce collections currently under
review by OMB.
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to OIRA_Submission@
omb.eop.gov or fax to (202) 395–5806.
Dated: January 11, 2018.
Sarah Brabson,
NOAA PRA Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018–00691 Filed 1–16–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
RIN 0648–XF951

Whaling Provisions; Aboriginal
Subsistence Whaling Quotas
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; notification of quota for
bowhead whales.
AGENCY:

NMFS notifies the public of
the aboriginal subsistence whaling
quota for bowhead whales that it has
assigned to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling
Commission (AEWC), and of limitations
on the use of the quota deriving from
regulations of the International Whaling
Commission (IWC). For 2018, the quota
is 75 bowhead whales struck. This quota
and other applicable limitations govern
the harvest of bowhead whales by
members of the AEWC.
DATES: Applicable January 17, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Office for International
Affairs and Seafood Inspection, National
Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 EastWest Highway, Silver Spring, MD
20910.
SUMMARY:

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Carolyn Doherty, (301) 427–8385.
Aboriginal
subsistence whaling in the United States
is governed by the Whaling Convention
Act (WCA) (16 U.S.C. 916 et seq.).
Under the WCA, IWC regulations shall
generally become effective with respect
to all persons and vessels subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States, within
90 days of notification from the IWC
Secretariat of an amendment to the IWC
Schedule (16 U.S.C. 916k). Regulations
that implement the WCA, found at 50
CFR 230.6, require the Secretary of
Commerce (Secretary) to publish, at
least annually, aboriginal subsistence
whaling quotas and any other
limitations on aboriginal subsistence
whaling deriving from regulations of the
IWC.
At the 64th Annual Meeting of the
IWC, the Commission set catch limits
for aboriginal subsistence use of
bowhead whales from the BeringChukchi-Beaufort Seas stock. The
bowhead catch limits were based on a
joint request by the United States and
the Russian Federation, accompanied by
documentation concerning the needs of
two Native groups: Alaska Eskimos and
Chukotka Natives in the Russian Far
East.
The IWC set a 6-year block catch limit
of 336 bowhead whales landed. For
each of the years 2013 through 2018, the
number of bowhead whales struck may
not exceed 67, except that any unused
portion of a strike quota from any prior
year may be carried forward. No more
than 15 strikes may be added to the
strike quota for any one year. At the end
of the 2017 harvest, there were 15
unused strikes available for carryforward, so the combined strike quota
set by the IWC for 2018 is 82 (67 + 15).
An arrangement between the United
States and the Russian Federation
ensures that the total quota of bowhead
whales landed and struck in 2018 will
not exceed the limits set by the IWC.
Under this arrangement, the Russian
natives may use no more than seven
strikes, and the Alaska Eskimos may use
no more than 75 strikes.
Through its cooperative agreement
with the AEWC, NOAA has assigned 75
strikes to the Alaska Eskimos. The
AEWC will in turn allocate these strikes
among the 11 villages whose cultural
and subsistence needs have been
documented, and will ensure that its
hunters use no more than 75 strikes.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Other Limitations
The IWC regulations, as well as the
NOAA regulation at 50 CFR 230.4(c),
forbid the taking of calves or any whale
accompanied by a calf.

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