Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

U.S. Department of Commerce

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Vessel Information Family of Forms

OMB Control No. 0648-0595

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) requests OMB merge the recently approved 0648-0798 information collection into the approved 0648-0595 information collection, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Vessel Information Family of Forms. Due to the concurrent timing of the rulemaking and the timing of the renewal of the collection of information 0648-0595, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Vessel Information Family of Forms, a temporary collection was created for the rule-related collection. This request seeks to merge the new temporary collection (0648-0798) with 0648-0595 now that all actions have been resolved.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) promulgated a rule (0648-BI79) in 2021 to implement a decision of the Commission on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPFC or the Commission), which requires that the United States provide to the Commission a vessel’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) number for vessels at least 100 Gross Tonnage (GT) or 100 Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) in size, or for motorized inboard fishing vessels of less than 100 GRT (or 100 GRT) down to a size of 12 meters in length overall (LOA), for those vessels authorized to be used for fishing in the Convention Area beyond the U.S. exclusive economic zone. Previously, the requirement applied only to vessels at least 100 GT or 100 GRT in size, so the new requirement that was implemented by NMFS through rulemaking would extend the requirement to motorized inboard fishing vessels of less than 100 GT or 100 GRT down to a size of 12 meters in length overall.

Information Collection	Respondents		Responses		Burden Hours		Reason for change or adjustment
	After Merge	Previous Renewal 0648-0595	After Merge	Previous Renewal 0648-0595	After Merge	Previous Renewal 0648-0595
Request for IMO Ship Identification Number	48	2	48	2	24	1	Number of respondents changed as the requirement expanded to include more vessels than it was previously applicable to
Total for Collection	48	2	48	2	24	1
Difference	+46		+46		+23

Notice was provided to the public in both the proposed rule (86 FR 55790) and final rule (88 FR 30671) of the creation of a temporary collection for the collection of an International Maritime Organization (IMO) number that would be merged into 0648-0595 upon resolution of the extension to 0648-0595 and the approval of the final rule package in 0648-0798. The merging of these collections would add 46 responses, 24 burden hours, and $48 in miscellaneous costs to 0648-0595.

Information Collection	Labor Costs		Miscellaneous Costs		Reason for change or adjustment
	After Merge	Previous	After Merge	Previous
Request for IMO Ship Identification Number	$627.84	$26.16	$48	$2	Number of respondents changed as the requirement expanded to include more vessels than it was previously applicable to
Total for Collection	$627.84	$26.16	$48	$2
Difference	+$601.68		+$46

There are no other changes to 0648-0595. Upon approval by OMB of this change request, a discontinuation request will be submitted for information collection 0648-0798.