As part of its fishery management responsibilities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) collects certain information to determine whether a respondent complies with regulations that pertain to the issuance, transfer, ownership interest, or renewal of a Pacific Coast Groundfish limited entry permit or exempted fishing permit.
Letters of Acknowledgement (LOAs) and Exempted Educational Activity Authorizations (EEAAs) were historically collected under OMB control number 0648-0309. To reduce burden estimates, NMFS Headquarters proposed to move LOAs and EEAAs to their respective region's permit family-of-forms collections. OMB control number 0648-0309 will need to remain in place until all of the regions have moved the necessary elements into the respective regional PRA collections.
In addition, upon approval of this collection, OMB Control No. 0648-0737, which covers the sablefish permit stacking exemption, will be merged with this collection. Then 0648-0737 can be discontinued.
Program Change
Letters of Acknowledgements (LOAs) and Exempted Educational Activity Authorizations (EEAAs) were historically collected under OMB control number 0648-0309. To reduce burden estimates, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Headquarters proposed to move LOAs and EEAAs to their respective region's permit family-of-forms collections.
This application also includes a request to merge the Own/Hold Control Limit Exemption information from OMB Control Number 0648-0737 with the information collection known as the West Coast Region Seattle Federal Fisheries Permits (OMB Control Number 0648-0203). This will allow all Pacific Coast Groundfish limited entry permit collections to be under one OMB package. The information needed to request the voluntary exemption should already be information that the vessel owner has on hand (e.g., vessel permit number, vessel name, ownership percentages) and the respondents are not required to provide any additional data or do any additional data gathering. For respondent convenience, the paper forms will be available on the West Coast Groundfish website. The form is titled Sablefish Permit Hold Count Exemption Identification of Ownership Interest Form. The only cost to respondents would be the time it takes them to fill out the form. Overall, with only 13 respondents and 10 minutes to complete the form, it only adds 2 burden hours annually to the current information collections.
EFP Trip Notifications: This component of the information collection for -0203 was not listed in the prior collection, but should have been. This results in an increase of 50 respondents, 500 responses, 17 burden hours, and $3,500 burden costs.
Total Program Changes: Increase of 69 respondents; 520 responses; 62 burden hours; $3,514 cost burden.
Adjustment
There were two LEP combinations in 2018, so the total number of respondents for LEP renewals changed from 397 to 395.
In the supporting statement for the previous extension for this information collection, the response estimate for LEP transfers was given as 25 minutes and this figure went into the burden hour calculations. This bookkeeping error was changed to 30 minutes to match the time estimate stated on both the 60d FRN from 2016 (81 FR 12473) and 2019 (84 FR 29848), resulting in an adjustment from 54 hours (130 respondents x 25 minutes/response) to 65 hours (130 respondents x 25 minutes/response).
Total Adjustments: Increase of 107 responses, decrease of 291 burden hours, and increase of $842 burden costs.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Limited Entry Permit Renewal