Justification for Change

JUSTIFICATION FOR CHANGE

U.S. Department of Commerce

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Northeast Multispecies Reporting Requirements

OMB Control No. 0648-0605

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) requests OMB merge the 0648-0800 temporary information collection into the recently approved 0648-0605 information collection, Northeast Multispecies Reporting Requirements. Due to the concurrent timing of the rulemaking for 0648-BK17 and the timing of the renewal of the collection of information 0648-0605, Northeast Multispecies Reporting Requirements, a temporary collection was created for the rule-related collection. This request seeks to merge the new temporary collection (0648-0800) with 0648-0605 now that all actions have been resolved.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) promulgated a rule (0648-BK17) in 2022 to add a dockside monitoring requirement for vessels electing to use maximized retention electronic monitoring (MREM) to meet the existing monitoring requirement.

Notice was provided to the public in both the proposed rule (87 FR 11014) and final rule (87 FR75852) of the creation of a temporary collection for the collection of dockside monitoring service provider requirements that would be merged into 0648-0605 upon resolution of the extension to 0648-0605 and the approval of the final rule package in 0648-0800. The merging of these collections would add 49,204 responses, 16,276 burden hours, and $2,805,888 in miscellaneous costs to 0648-0605.

Changes to the Cost Per Response in ROCIS were updated for several information collections due to previous administrative error. This results in a reduction of $1,858 in miscellaneous costs. There are no other changes to 0648-0605. Upon approval by OMB of this change request, a discontinuation request will be submitted for information collection 0648-0800.

Information Collection	Respondents		Responses		Burden Hours
	After Merge with 0648-0800	Previous Renewal / Revision	After Merge with 0648-0800	Previous Renewal / Revision	After Merge with 0648-0800	Previous Renewal / Revision
Sector Operations Plan & Annual Membership List Updates	20	20	40	40	4400	4400
Monitoring & Reporting Service Providers Application & Response to Denial	14	10	24	20	240	200
Monitoring System (database) for Discards, Sector Manager Weekly Catch Reports & Annual Reports	20	20	21060	21060	6318	6318
Notification of Ejection from Sector	10	10	10	10	5	5
Transfer of Annual Catch Entitlement Between Sectors	1200	1200	2400	2400	200	200
Area & DAS Declaration - Groundfish Vessels Fishing under any NE Multispecies DAS	1309	1309	15000	15000	1250	1250
VMS Daily Catch Reports - Average 5-day Length Trips	85	85	2975	2975	744	744
Catch Reporting Requirements: US/Canada Area, CA II SAPs, Close Area I SAP, and Regular B Program	100	100	1030	1030	258	258
At-Sea Monitoring & Reporting Requirements - Notifications & Database Requirements & Monitoring Costs	14	10	143015	93815	53762	37526
NE Fishery Observer Notification	1309	1309	15000	15000	1250	1250
Trip Start/End Hails	1309	1309	32500	32500	2708	2708
DAS Transfer Program	1309	1309	1309	1309	109	109
Submission of Proposed Special Access Program (SAP)	1	1	1	1	20	20
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Reporting Requirements	5	5	25	25	569	569
DAS Leasing Request Form	200	200	400	400	32	32
DAS Downgrade Request	2	2	2	2	0	0
VMS Trip Catch Reports - 1 Day or Less Trips	15	15	75	75	19	19
Electronic Monitoring Program Requirements	10	10	12319	12319	6181	6181
NAFO - Daily Observer Catch Report Information	5	5	750	750	75	75
Total for Collection	6937	6929	247935	198731	78137	61864
Difference	8		49204		16273

Information Collection	Labor Costs		Miscellaneous Costs
	After Merge with 0648-0800	Previous	After Merge with 0648-0800	Previous
Sector Operations Plan & Annual Membership List Updates	$ 162,492.00	$ 162,492.00	$ 2,000	$ 2,000
Monitoring & Reporting Service Providers Application & Response to Denial	$ 14,508.00	$ 12,090.00	$ 212.00	$ 200.00
Monitoring System (database) for Discards, Sector Manager Weekly Catch Reports & Annual Reports	$ 233,323.74	$ 233,323.74	$ -	$ -
Notification of Ejection from Sector	$ 184.65	$ 184.65	$ 6.80	$ 6.80
Transfer of Annual Catch Entitlement Between Sectors	$ 7,386.00	$ 7,386.00	$ 3,264	$ 3,264
Area & DAS Declaration - Groundfish Vessels Fishing under any NE Multispecies DAS	$ 53,903.00	$ 53,903.00	$ 15,000	$ 15,000
VMS Daily Catch Reports - Average 5-day Length Trips	$ 32,085.38	$ 32,085.38	$ 6,634	$ 6,634
Catch Reporting Requirements: US/Canada Area, CA II SAPs, Close Area I SAP, and Regular B Program	$ 11,108.55	$ 11,108.55	$ 2,297	$ 2,297
At-Sea Monitoring & Reporting Requirements - Notifications & Database Requirements & Monitoring Costs	$ 3,249,912.90	$2,268,446.70	$ 7,565,699	$ 4,759,823
NE Fishery Observer Notification	$ 53,903.00	$ 53,903.00	$ -	$ -
Trip Start/End Hails	$ 116,823.12	$ 116,823.12	$ 30,550	$ 30,550
DAS Transfer Program	$ 4,703.99	$ 4,703.99	$ 1,780	$ 1,780
Submission of Proposed Special Access Program (SAP)	$ 862.80	$ 862.80	$ 2	$ 2
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Reporting Requirements	$ 24,535.88	$ 24,535.88	$ 3,138	$ 3,138
DAS Leasing Request Form	$ 1,380.48	$ 1,380.48	$ 272	$ 272
DAS Downgrade Request	$ 7.33	$ 7.33	$ 4	$ 4
VMS Trip Catch Reports - 1 Day or Less Trips	$ 808.88	$ 808.88	$ 165	$ 165
Electronic Monitoring Program Requirements	$ 373,611.23	$ 373,611.23	$ 53,375	$ 53,375
NAFO - Daily Observer Catch Report Information	$ 3,235.50	$ 3,235.50	$ 1,673	$ 1,673
Total for Collection	$ 4,344,776.43	$3,360,892.23	$ 7,686,075	$ 4,880,184
Difference	$ 983,884.20		$ 2,805,890