Justification - SAFMC SMILE

Project Title: SAFMC SMILE Project

Program Office Sponsoring or Conducting this CSC Project: NMFS/South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC)

Authority for this CSC Project: MSA and CCSA

Purpose of this CSC Project: The SAFMC is responsible for the conservation and management of federal fisheries resources in the South Atlantic US. Its Citizen Science Program aims to develop and support projects that address research needs. This project addresses one of the SAFMC's citizen science research priorities to collect additional information on data limited species, and in particular providing additional length data for data limited species.

Type(s) of Information Collected and From Whom It Is Collected: Information is collected from recreational divers. Data collected include video, fish length, and will be paired with a partner's project that collects relative abundance information.

Use of the Information: Information gained through the project will complement other data sources to inform relevant stock assessments and management measures in the South Atlantic.

Method(s) of Information Collection: camera/video, electronically and paper format

Affected Public: Individuals, business or other for-profit organizations, not-for-profit organizations/institutions, state and federal government.

Estimated Average Annual Number of Participants: 10

Estimated Average Annual Number of Responses per Participant: 32

Estimated Average Minutes per Response: 58

Estimated Average Annual Burden Hours: 312

Estimated Total Annual Cost to Participants in this CSC Project: $0

Estimated Average Annual Costs to the Federal Government: $140,995

Estimated Average Annual Number of Federal Government Employees (FTEs): 0.10

Recruitment and Retention Methods for Voluntary Participants (SSA item 1):

Project partner, Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), will be recruiting volunteer recreational divers from their Advanced Assessment Team (AAT) for the SMILE (Size Matters: Innovative Length Estimates) pilot project. This is an existing team of experienced divers heavily involved in REEF’s citizen science projects who can participate in special surveys and projects.

Gifts or Payments (SSA Item 9): The project partner will pay volunteer recreational divers per diem for multi-day dive trips for the pilot.

Annual and Multi-Year Schedules (SSA Item 16): The SMILE pilot project will begin in October 2022 and be complete in September 2025. Much of the first year will focus on development and testing of the stereo camera and development of the database. Data collection will occur multiple months each year in 2023, 2024, and early 2025. Grant progress reports will be provided approximately every 6 months and a final grant report will be available in late 2025. Once the pilot project is complete, data collection will continue into the future as funding allows.

Display OMB Control No. and Expiration Date (SSA Item 17): This information will be provided when individuals sign up to participate in this CSC project.

Statistical Methods: This CSC project will not employ statistical methods.

Approval for Pretesting: This CSC project will not require additional pretesting with more than nine members of the public.

Supplemental Documents: Photo and video data will be collected through the SMILE project and stored according to NOAA guidelines. The data will be used in collaboration with another REEF project, the Volunteer Fish Survey Project (VFSP). The one supplemental document for this CSC project is the data collection tool used for the VFSP for Florida (where data collection will take place during the pilot project). The SMILE video data will be collected in collaboration with this project.

CERTIFICATION: I certify the following are true.

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The collection will not include highly influential scientific information, ,which is information NOAA or OMB determines: (i) could have a potential impact of more than $500 million in any year, or (ii) is novel, controversial, or precedent setting or has significant interagency interest.

5. The collection complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).

6. The collection will provide qualitative and quantitative data that help inform scientific research and monitoring, validate models or tools, support STEM learning, and enhance the quantity and quality of data collected to support NOAA’s mission.

Name: Julia Byrd