Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program Permit and License Information Collection

This request is for a revision and extension of a current information collection. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., authorizes Fishery Management Councils to prepare and amend fishery management plans (FMP) for any fishery in waters under its jurisdiction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) manages the groundfish fishery in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area 3-200 mile zone off the Washington, Oregon, and California coasts. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) began developing a trawl rationalization program, a catch share program, for the Pacific coast groundfish limited entry trawl fishery in 2003. The program is composed of three sectors, as follows: 1) the shore based individual fishing quota (IFQ) sector, 2) the at-sea whiting mothership (MS) sector, and 3) the at- sea whiting catcher/processor (C/P) sector. The shore based IFQ sector consists of quota share (QS) permit owners, catcher vessels that are registered to limited entry trawl permits, have vessel accounts, fish for quota pounds (QP), and first receiver site license (FRSL) holders who receive the shore based IFQ landings. The at-sea trawl fleets catch and process Pacific whiting (whiting) with midwater trawl gear. In the MS sector, mothership catcher vessels (MS/CVs) harvest the whiting and deliver the catch to large MS vessels, where it is sorted and processed at-sea. One or more MS coops may form and/or vessels may fish in a non-cooperative fishery. Both coop and non-coop fishery vessels pool their harvest together. In the C/P sector, C/P vessels catch and process whiting at-sea under a single C/P coop. This revision will include the removal of three ICs: Catch monitoring plans / First Receivers Preparation & Submission, Catch monitoring plans / First Receivers Inspection, & Shore based scales / First Receivers Inspection. The removal of these ICs is necessary because they are encompassed in the First Receiver Site License Application Form. This action decreases the duplicate actions and burden to fill out said forms.

The latest form for Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program Permit and License Information Collection expires 2029-08-31 and is listed under ICR 202601-0648-002.

QS Permit/Account Application & Renewal

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Natural Resources - Conservation, Marine and Land Management

Review document collections for all forms, instructions, and supporting documents - including paper/printable forms.