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of time per speaker will be determined
by the number of requests received but
is likely to be about three minutes each.
Questions from the public will not be
considered during this period. Requests
must be submitted by email to Corrine
Lloyd at [email protected] and
must be received by 4:00 p.m. Eastern
Time, May 17, 2023 to be considered.
Speakers who wish to expand upon
their oral statements, those who had
wished to speak but could not be
accommodated on the agenda, and those
who were unable to participate are
invited to submit written statements by
email to [email protected].
All NIST staff and public participants
will be attending via webinar and must
register at: https://events.nist.gov/
profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=
0x20977abcd by 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time,
May 17, 2023 for detailed instructions
on how to join the webinar. Any
questions regarding registration may be
directed to Corrine Lloyd at
[email protected].
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1512 as
amended, and the Federal Advisory
Committee Act, as amended, 5 U.S.C.
App.
Alicia Chambers,
NIST Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2023–07260 Filed 4–5–23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–13–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
Review and Approval; Comment
Request; West Coast Groundfish Trawl
Economic Data
National Oceanic &
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of information collection,
request for comment.
AGENCY:

The Department of
Commerce, in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA), invites the general public and
other Federal agencies to comment on
proposed, and continuing information
collections, which helps us assess the
impact of our information collection
requirements and minimize the public’s
reporting burden. The purpose of this
notice is to allow for 60 days of public
comment preceding submission of the
collection to OMB.
DATES: To ensure consideration,
comments regarding this proposed

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SUMMARY:

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information collection must be received
on or before June 5, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are
invited to submit written comments to
Adrienne Thomas, NOAA PRA Officer,
at [email protected]. Please
reference OMB Control Number 0648–
618 in the subject line of your
comments. Do not submit Confidential
Business Information or otherwise
sensitive or protected information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information or
specific questions related to collection
activities should be directed to Erin
Steiner, Northwest Fisheries Science
Center, 2725 Montlake Blvd. E, Seattle,
WA 98103, (206) 860–3202 or
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
This request is for revision and
renewal of a currently approved
information collection. This information
collection is needed in order to meet the
monitoring requirements of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). In
particular, the Northwest Fisheries
Science Center (NWFSC) needs
economic data on all harvesters, quota
share permit owners, first receivers,
shorebased processors, catcher
processors, and motherships
participating in the West Coast
groundfish trawl fishery. The current
approval covers collection of data for
the 2019–2021 operating years. The
renewed approval will cover years
2022–2024. Data will be collected from
all catcher vessels registered to a limited
entry trawl endorsed permit, quota
share permit owners, catcher processors
registered to catcher processor permits,
motherships registered to mothership
permits, first receivers, and shorebased
processors that received round or headand-gutted IFQ groundfish or whiting
from a first receiver to provide the
necessary information for analyzing the
effects of the West Coast Groundfish
Trawl Catch Share Program.
As stated in 50 CFR 660.114, the EDC
forms due on September 1, 2023, will
provide data for the 2022 operating year.
Changes are being proposed to three
forms: the quota share owner form, the
first receiver and shorebased processor
form, and the catcher vessel form.
Two changes are proposed for the
quota share owner form. First, the
question ‘‘Is this permit owned solely by
a non-profit?’’ will be removed from the
survey as it was determined that
sufficient information is available from
other sources to make this question
redundant. The second proposed change
is to replace the survey’s third question

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with a series of shorter questions
guiding the participant to provide the
correct information. This change will
clarify which information should be
reported for each type of respondent
and will reduce the need for lengthy
instructions section describing how the
participant should answer. The series of
questions are:
A. ‘‘Which types of quota transactions
were associated with QSXXXX in 2022?
Check all that apply’’ This question
helps the participant determine whether
any earnings need to be reported on the
survey. If appropriate categories are
checked, they will be asked question B.
B. ‘‘How much did this quota share
account earn from leasing quota in year
2022?’’ Participants will answer this
question with a dollar amount. To
ensure there is no duplicate reporting,
participants will be asked question C:
C. ‘‘Did you record any earnings from
2021 quota leasing on an EDC form?’’ If
participants answer ‘‘No,’’ they will be
prompted to affirm that their response
to question B was correct and submit
the survey. If they answer ‘‘Yes,’’ they
will be asked to respond to question D.
D. ‘‘How much in quota lease earnings
did you record on your EDC form(s)?
Participants will answer with a
numerical value and proceed to
question E.
E. ‘‘Please confirm your total quota
lease earnings in 2021 was ‘Response to
question B + ‘Response to question D.’
After confirming, participants will then
submit the survey.
We anticipate no additional burden
with this change because the new
structure of the survey will generate
fewer incorrect responses and survey
administrators will no longer need to
contact participants outside of the
survey to confirm that they did not
provide duplicate responses across
survey forms.
First receiver and shorebased
processor form changes are more
extensive. The purpose of the changes
are fourfold: remove requests for
information that are not used in
development of a Pacific Fishery
Management Council Fishery
Management Plan, consolidate
questions where additional detail is no
longer required, clarify handling of
intercompany transfers and inventory,
and collect more accurate information
about hourly wages.
First, we propose a complete removal
of Question 18: ‘‘Provide the following
information about the landing origin of
groundfish received at this facility.’’
Throughout the eleven years of the
program, these data have not been used
in the Council process and we do not

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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 66 / Thursday, April 6, 2023 / Notices
anticipate using this information in the
future.
Second, we propose consolidating the
fishery-level detail requests from
Question 19: ‘‘Fish Received. In the
table below provide the weight and cost
of fish received.’’ For groundfish
species, the existing form requests
weight not paid for, weight paid for, and
cost of fish by species group for three
fisheries (LE Trawl, LE Fixed Gear, and
Other) as well as Non-vessel sources. In
the revised form, the table will be
consolidated to only request Vessel
sources and Non-vessel sources. This
will be a net reduction of 72 data entry
cells on the form (12 species groups ×
removal of 2 fisheries × 3 fields). We
will no longer request this information
because fishery-detail information can
be obtained from other sources.
Third, we propose revising how
intercompany transfers and inventory
are reported on the form. Similar to the
quota share owner survey, there are
extensive instructions on handling these
two topics, but reporting errors are
extremely common. To facilitate
accurate reporting of intercompany
transfers, we will remove a column
dedicated to transfer information from
Question 19 and remove instructions
about recording transfers in Question
20. Then, all of the transfer-related
information will be moved to a separate
question/table. This change will make
the survey instructions easier to
understand, allow companies that do
not have intercompany transfers to skip
the question entirely, and will make it
easier to detect and remedy mistakes.
Similarly, there are extensive
instructions on how to record inventory
in Question 20 on the existing form, but
no dedicated field for inventory.
Instead, participants are currently
instructed to add inventory to the other
sales categories. We propose adding a
new line for each species group to
record the inventory volume and value.
Similar to the changes to transfers in
Question 19 and 20, the new structure
of Question 20 clarifies how to complete
the form and facilitates identifying and
resolving errors. Finally, this change
will provide new important information
about inventory volumes across years,
providing better information about the
status of the processing sector to the
Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Lastly, a common performance metric
for fisheries programs is hourly wage
payments to processing workers. In the
current form, we request the total
number of workers and total hours
worked for the week that includes the
12th of each month and total annual
compensation payments. To calculate
hourly wages, we must extrapolate to

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the total hours worked for the year.
Through conversations with
participants, it has become apparent
that within-month employment can
have high variability and our
extrapolations are not always accurate.
We propose requesting the equivalent
compensation value for each of the oneweek windows to allow for a more
accurate calculation of hourly wages.
This additional field will also allow us
to generate an estimate of within-month
employment variability.
The only proposed change to the
Catcher Vessel survey form is to remove
two questions. In 2018, at the request of
participants in the trawl catch share
program, two additional questions were
added, Question 17: ‘‘Do you track
capitalized expenditures and expenses
on fishing gear by type (e.g., midwater
trawl gear, groundfish bottom trawl
gear)?’’ and Question 18: ‘‘Provide the
2021 total capitalized expenditures and
expenses associated with each type of
fishing gear used in West Coast
Fisheries (Washington, Oregon, and
California).’’ Since the implementation
of the questions in 2018, there has only
been one ‘‘Yes’’ out nearly 700 total
responses to Question 17 and therefore
no further information about gearspecific costs have been collected.
Therefore there will be no information
loss associated with removal of these
two questions and there will be a small
reduction in total burden hours.
II. Method of Collection
Vessel, first receiver, and shorebased
processor forms may be submitted via
mail or electronically. All quota share
owner survey forms must be submitted
online as part of the quota share permit
renewal system.
III. Data
OMB Control Number: 0648–0618.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Review: Regular submission
(Revision and extension of a current
information collection).
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit and not-for-profit organization.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
352.
Estimated Time per Response: 8 hours
for catcher processors, catcher vessels,
and motherships, 1 hour for quota share
permit owners, and 20 hours for first
receivers and shorebased processors.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 2,209.
Estimated Total Annual Cost to
Public: $3,668.45 in recordkeeping/
reporting costs.
Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: 50 CFR 660.114.

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IV. Request for Comments
We are soliciting public comments to
permit the Department/Bureau to: (a)
Evaluate whether the proposed
information collection is necessary for
the proper functions of the Department,
including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the
accuracy of our estimate of the time and
cost burden for this proposed collection,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (c)
Evaluate ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and (d) Minimize the
reporting burden on those who are to
respond, including the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology.
Comments that you submit in
response to this notice are a matter of
public record. We will include or
summarize each comment in our request
to OMB to approve this ICR. Before
including your address, phone number,
email address, or other personal
identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that
your entire comment—including your
personal identifying information—may
be made publicly available at any time.
While you may ask us in your comment
to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of
the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs,
Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023–07236 Filed 4–5–23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
[RTID 0648–XC893]

Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to
Specified Activities; Taking Marine
Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy
Construction at Portsmouth Naval
Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; issuance of renewal
incidental harassment authorization
(IHA).
AGENCY:

In accordance with the
regulations implementing the Marine
Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), as
amended, notification is hereby given

SUMMARY:

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