Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

U.S. Department of Commerce

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Northeast Region Permit Family of Forms

OMB Control No. 0648-0202

RIN 0648-BF43

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing a change to the 0648-0202 family of forms to add a new information collection for federally permitted fishing vessels and dealers. This information collection will remain unchanged, with the exception of revising the description of the limited-access American lobster vessel permit and adding a Jonah crab endorsement to the dealer permit. There will be no burden added, and no additional public cost burden associated with this change.

A change request was authorized by OMB for this collection due to change requests for related information collection requests 0648-0229 – Northeast Region Dealer Purchase Family of Forms – and 0648-0212 – Northeast Region Logbook Family of Forms also affected by this rule.

Under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s process for species that are managed by both the states and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the Commission decides upon a management strategy, and then recommends that the states and Federal government enact regulations to complement these measures when appropriate. The Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act directs the Federal Government to support the management efforts of the Commission and, to the extent the Federal Government seeks to regulate a Commission species, to develop regulations that are compatible with the Commission’s Interstate Fishery Management Plan and consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act’s National Standards.

The Commission developed an Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Jonah Crab and requested that we issue complementary measures. Among these measures are recommendations for a Federal dealer permit and to restrict Jonah crab harvest to vessels that already hold a limited access American lobster permit. As such, we are modifying the dealer forms to include an endorsement for Jonah crab and modifying the description of the American lobster permit in the explanatory section of the vessel application package.

These revisions will not change the number of participants, the costs associated with these programs, nor the total burden.