Reporting Questions

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

Annual Report: Tabular Section

For the first part of your annual report, you will be asked to report how many animals you
took. If completing your report in APPS, you will see your take table and the number of
animals you were authorized over the year. Next to that, enter how many animals you
actually took for those activities. Consult the guidance in your permit for how to count take.
For parts permits: Provide more specific information in a separate table to document the
legal collection and receipt of samples imported, exported, or received during this
reporting period.

Annual Report: Narrative Section

For the narrative part, you will be asked to answer the questions below. Provide complete
answers to the best of your ability. If a question is not applicable, explain why. We
acknowledge that monitoring during and after certain activities is often opportunistic.
1. What progress did you make toward meeting your objectives this year?
For example:
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Summarize which permitted activities you did and did not do.
Did you meet your sample sizes? Explain. For example, if you used less than 50% of
your annual takes, describe why those takes were unused.
Did you conduct repeated surveys in the same location? Elaborate.
How many individuals did you intentionally take multiple times and by what
methods?
Were you able to have samples analyzed, did your tags successfully transmit data,
etc.?
Did you identify any new threats to the conservation or recovery of a species or DPS?
Were you able to make progress in analyzing and/or publishing your data?
List citations for any new reports, publications, and presentations. We may request
electronic copies.

2. Describe the following observations during your activities:
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The physical condition of the animals you encountered and conducted procedures or
activities on.
How the animals reacted to specific procedures or activities. Describe normal and
abnormal responses of target and non-target animals.
Where possible, provide quantitative data and estimate the proportion of animals
(%) that had those physical conditions or reactions.

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

3. Explain your efforts to conduct follow-up monitoring. Report your findings. Photographs
are useful to document things like wound healing.
We are especially interested in:
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Animal responses to new or novel procedures or activities.
Time it takes to resume normal behavior after harassment.
Time it takes to re-populate rookeries or haul outs after harassment.
Condition of animals when resighted or recaptured.
Recovery from sedation and/or handling and post-release behavior.
Healing at site of invasive sampling (e.g., biopsy).
Healing at site of invasive tag deployment (e.g., surgical tag implants requiring
sutures, remotely deployed dart/barb, deep-implant, medial ridge, and pygal tags).
Tag retention and tag breakage (i.e., is the tag still attached and what condition is the
tag in?).

4. Answer and discuss the following:
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Did serious injuries or mortalities occur?
Did you exceed the number of takes authorized in any row of the take table?
Did you take animals in a manner not authorized in the permit?
Did you take a protected species you were not permitted?

If so, and you already submitted an incident report, please briefly describe the event here
and refer to the incident report.
If such an incident occurred and you have not yet reported it, provide:
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A full description of the incident (date and location of event; species and
circumstances of how the take occurred; photographs; necropsy and histopathology
reports, or other information to confirm cause of death or extent of injuries; etc.).
Steps that were or will be taken to reduce the possibility of it happening again.

5. Describe any other problems encountered during this reporting period and steps taken
or proposed to resolve them. Examples include equipment failure, weather delays, safety
issues, and unanticipated effects to habitats or other species.
6. Discuss your efforts to coordinate and collaborate with others:
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Which NMFS Regional Office(s) and permit holder(s) did you contact for
coordination?
How did you collaborate (e.g., avoiding field work at the same time or working
together on the same animals, sharing vessels, sharing data)?

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

Cetacean Invasive Tagging Narrative
If you are conducting invasive tagging (dart/barb or deep-implant) on ESA-listed
cetaceans, you will also need to answer this additional set of reporting questions:
1.

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For each ESA-listed species or DPS, provide how many dart/barb tags were:

Successfully deployed (i.e., remained attached and collected data to achieve your
objectives).
Unsuccessfully deployed (i.e., failed to attach, briefly attached, or failed to transmit
data)

2. For each ESA-listed species or DPS, provide how many deep-implant tags were:
•
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Successfully deployed (i.e., remained attached and collected data to achieve your
objectives).
Unsuccessfully deployed (i.e., failed to attach, briefly attached, or failed to transmit
data).

3. Did you always deploy tags in the intended location on the body? If not, please describe
and discuss the following:
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Why and how often this occurred.
Where the tags were deployed on the body.
The potential for serious injury (e.g., sensitive areas, if the location of the tag was
near blood vessels or in an area with inadequate blubber thickness).

4. If not already included in your response to the standard annual report question No. 3,
describe your efforts and results of post-tag monitoring of animals instrumented with
invasive tags to assess the following:
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The location on the body and condition of the tag (including breakage).
Tag wound reaction and healing (e.g., severity of swelling, depressions, and
coloration).
Animal health and behavior.
Fecundity (presence of calf).
Survival.

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

Sturgeon Narrative
If you are a sturgeon researcher, you will need to answer this additional set of reporting
questions. For each, you will be asked to respond separately for Atlantic sturgeon and
shortnose sturgeon, as applicable.
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Is spawning occurring in the systems you study?
• If yes, which species within which systems?
• Does spawning occur intermittently or regularly?
• Does spawning occur in the spring or fall?
• Have early life stages been documented? (e.g, location and time)

Are juveniles present in the system(s) you study? If yes, which systems?
Is there a progression through age classes (i.e. Ages 0 through 3)?

Adult sturgeon: Provide genetic (i.e., effective) and/or census population estimates
if different than previously reported for each system you study.

Juvenile sturgeon: Provide genetic (i.e., effective) and/or census population
estimates if different than previously reported for each system you study.

Provide a percent rate of survival if different than previously reported for adult
sturgeon for the system you study.

Describe the major threats (e.g., one that if removed or significantly reduced could
lead to recovery) to juvenile sturgeon in your study area.
Describe the minor threats (e.g., one that likely results in low level mortality or
reduced fitness) to juvenile sturgeon in your study area.

If you internally tagged sturgeon, you will be asked to provide information about
those animals. If using APPS to complete your report, you will be able to download
a spreadsheet template, fill it out, and upload it to APPS. Provide the following
information for any internally tagged sturgeon: a unique individual ID, species, tag
date, sex, total length, telemetry tag ID and tag life, date of first detection, number
of detections, date of last tag detection, days at large, and date of recapture.

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

Final Report

After your permit has expired, you will submit a combined annual/final report. The report
will have a tabular section and the 6 questions above, exactly like an annual report. In
addition, you will be asked to respond to these 5 questions:
1. Did you meet your objectives for the permit? What did you learn?

2. If you did not meet your objectives, explain why. For example, if you did not tag or mark
as many animals as needed to meet your sample size, explain why and how that impacted
your ability to meet the goals of your study.
3. For ESA-listed or MMPA-depleted target species: Explain how the results of your
permitted work benefitted or promoted their recovery or conservation. How did your
research contribute to fulfilling Recovery or Conservation Plan objectives (as
applicable)? Explain.
4. Did you identify any additional or improved mitigation measures?
5. (Optional) We appreciate any feedback on the application instructions, using APPS, and
your permit. For example, did you have any problems using APPS? Were any permit
conditions difficult to comply with or unclear? Were your permitted take numbers
appropriate?

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]

OMB No. 0648-0084; Expires xx/xx/xxxx

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall
a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a
currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information
collection is 0648-0084. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information collection.
Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 12 hours per
response for scientific research and enhancement permit reports, 8 hours per response for General
Authorization and protected species parts permit reports, and 2 hours per response for public
display and photography permit reports, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing
the information collection. All responses to this information collection are required as a condition
of your permit pursuant to the ESA, FSA, MMPA, NEPA, and their implementing regulations, as
applicable. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information
collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the Chief, Permits and Conservation
Division, Office of Protected Resources, F/PR1, NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 EastWest Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; email [email protected].

Questions or Problems? Contact us at [email protected]