[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 77 (Monday, April 23, 2007)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 20036-20039]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-1953]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

15 CFR Part 902

50 CFR Part 648

RIN 0648-AU80
[Docket No. 061016268-7080-02; I.D. 100506E]


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Regulatory Amendment 
to Modify Recordkeeping and Reporting and Observer Requirements

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: NMFS issues this final rule to implement measures to modify 
the existing reporting and recordkeeping requirements for federally 
permitted seafood dealers/processors, and the observer requirements for 
participating hagfish vessels. The New England

[[Page 20037]]

Fishery Management Council (Council) requested that this information 
collection program be developed to gather additional information on the 
unique aspects of the hagfish fishery and its interaction with other 
federally managed fisheries. The information collected from fishery 
participants (dealers/processors and vessels) will help the Council 
potentially develop a Hagfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP).

DATES: Effective May 23, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the regulatory amendment, its Regulatory Impact 
Review (RIR) and other supporting materials are available from Patricia 
A. Kurkul, Regional Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS, One 
Blackburn Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930.
    Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other 
aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this 
final rule may be submitted to Patricia A. Kurkul at the above address 
and by e-mail to [email protected], or by fax to (202) 395-
7285.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Potts, Fishery Management 
Specialist, (978) 281-9341.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On October 3, 2006, the Council sent NMFS a request to prepare an 
information collection program for the Atlantic hagfish fishery under 
the provisions of section 402(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). The request is 
based on a desire to improve upon the quality and quantity of 
information available on the hagfish resource and its fishery 
operations. The Council plans to use this information to determine 
whether future management measures for hagfish under an FMP are 
necessary. Without this information collection on hagfish, future 
management measures may not capture accurately the geographic and 
seasonal aspects of the fishery, which reflect overseas demand, and 
ensure that the resource may be sustained in future years. This 
collection of information (with changes, as appropriate) may be 
extended through the development and implementation of a Hagfish FMP.
    The Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa) fishery in New England was 
developed in the early 1990s, with the first reported landings of 
around 1 million lb (454 mt) in 1993. Korean buyers quickly recognized 
that a fishery in the New England area could provide the high-quality 
hagfish skins used in making leather, as well as hagfish meat for human 
consumption. Reported hagfish landings quadrupled during the first 4 
years of the fishery (1993-1996), exceeding the highest reported 
landings in other North American hagfish fisheries (including British 
Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California, and Nova Scotia) by 1994.
    Today, the hagfish fishery relies on revenues from the export of 
whole frozen hagfish product overseas, primarily to South Korea, for 
meat consumption. The hagfish fishery prosecuted off the coast of 
Gloucester, MA has changed from an inshore fishery comprised of small 
vessels to an offshore fishery that consists of large vessels. 
According to reports from a workshop that was held to identify the 
challenges in collecting information on this fishery, the reason for 
this change in the way the fishery is being conducted is that the 
fishery has experienced localized depletion in nearshore waters, 
necessitating movement of fishing effort to areas not historically 
fished for hagfish.

Dealer/processor Permitting and Reporting Requirements

    To meet the Council's request for information, this final rule will 
require that all seafood dealers who intend to purchase hagfish caught 
in or from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to be permitted under 
Sec.  648.6, and to submit, on a weekly basis, an electronic dealer 
report containing the required trip-level information for each purchase 
of hagfish made from fishing vessels, as per the regulations at Sec.  
648.7. Hagfish dealers will be required to obtain an initial dealer 
permit upon implementation of the hagfish information collection 
requirements and to renew the permit annually thereafter. Reports 
furnished by permitted dealers will help determine the level of 
discards and discard mortality of hagfish returned to the sea in 
response to rejection by the dealer in port. In addition, the 
collection of dealer purchase reports will help to verify landings 
reported in Vessel Trip Reports (VTRs) for those vessels that have VTR 
requirements, and for those that do not, the dealers will be required 
to report vessel identifiers. It is unlikely that additional dealers 
will join the fishery because the fishery is driven by a narrowly 
focused export market (South Korea only) that is currently in 
equilibrium with supply. However, this permitting and reporting 
requirement will also enable the identification of any new vessel and/
or dealer entrants into the fishery.

Dealer/processor Reports

    All federally permitted seafood dealers subject to this final rule 
will be required to complete all sections of the Annual Processed 
Products Report (Sec.  648.7). The report can be used by the Council in 
developing an FMP, to estimate processing capacity, and to forecast and 
subsequently measure the potential economic impact of fishery 
management regulations on fish and shellfish supplies. Employment data 
collected through the report can also be used to analyze the 
seasonality of the fishery.

Observer Requirement

    Under the hagfish information collection program, any vessel owner/
operator that fishes for, catches, or lands hagfish, or intends to fish 
for, catch, or land hagfish in or from the EEZ will be required to 
carry an observer when requested by the Regional Administrator in 
accordance with Sec.  648.11. Consistent with current observer 
regulations, hagfish vessel owners/operators will be required to call 
to arrange deployment of NMFS-approved observers on their vessels and 
to ensure adequate space for the observer aboard their vessels, once 
requested to carry an observer by the Regional Administrator. Although 
the vessels must call to arrange deployment of observers, hagfish 
vessels will not be required to pay for the observers; funding of 
observer coverage for this fishery will be provided by NMFS. These 
requests will be made for the purpose of monitoring fishing activities, 
collecting biological data, and complying with the information 
collection program requirements. Observers are particularly important 
because of the high discard rates that have been reported to occur in 
the hagfish fishery and because the proportion of the catch that is 
rejected by the dealer and later discarded at sea is not currently 
measured.
    The hagfish observer coverage objectives will focus on the 
collection of basic fleet information and observations of fishing 
behavior, including, but not limited to, the distribution of fishing 
effort, number of hauls per trip, area/depth fished, trip length, soak 
time, discard rates of hagfish or other species, gear type/
configuration, and gear deployment methodology. Understanding and 
quantifying the likelihood of marine mammal and sea turtle 
entanglements that may occur in hagfish gear in the areas fished is 
also an important observer program objective. The configuration of 
hagfish gear is similar enough to lobster gear that it is believed to 
pose the same or

[[Page 20038]]

similar entanglement threat to large whales; and there have been two 
large whale entanglements documented in the hagfish fishery: One in 
1997 involving entanglement of a finback whale; and one in 2002 
involving a humpback whale.

Comments and Responses

    The deadline for comments on the proposed rule was December 1, 
2006. NMFS received one comment letter that did not address the 
proposed rule.

Classification

    The Administrator, Northeast Region, NMFS, determined that this 
regulatory amendment is necessary for the conservation and management 
of the hagfish fishery and that it is consistent with the Magnuson-
Stevens Act and other applicable laws.
    This final rule has been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
    The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce 
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration during the proposed rule stage that this action would 
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities. The factual basis for the certification was published in the 
proposed rule and is not repeated here. No comments were received 
regarding this certification or the economic impacts of this proposed 
rule. As a result, a regulatory flexibility analysis was not required 
and none was prepared.
    This final rule contains a collection-of-information requirement 
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and which has been 
approved by OMB under control numbers 0648-0018, 0648-0229, and 0648-
0555. The estimated public reporting burden per individual response for 
the new and revised collection of information requirements related to 
the hagfish information collection program are estimated to average: 2 
minutes to request an observer (OMB 0648-0555); 4 minutes for 
a dealer purchase report (OMB 0648-0229); 15 minutes and 5 
minutes for initial dealer permit application/renewal application (OMB 
0648-0555), respectively; and 30 minutes for the Annual 
Processed Products Report (OMB 0648-0018). These reporting 
burden estimates include the time for reviewing instructions, searching 
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and 
completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments 
regarding these burden estimates or any other aspect of this data 
collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, to NMFS (see 
ADDRESSES) and by e-mail to [email protected], or fax to 202-
395-7285. Notwithstanding any other provision of the law, no person is 
required to respond to, and no person shall be subject to penalty for 
failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the 
requirements of the PRA, unless that collection of information displays 
a currently valid OMB control number.

List of Subjects

15 CFR Part 902

    Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

50 CFR Part 648

    Fisheries, Fishing, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: April 13, 2007.
Samuel D. Rauch III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.

0
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 15 CFR chapter IX, part 902, 
and 50 CFR chapter VI, part 648, are amended as follows:

PART 902--NOAA INFORMATION COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS UNDER THE 
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT: OMB CONTROL NUMBERS

0
1. The authority citation for part 902 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 44 U.S.C. 350 et seq.

0
2. In Sec.  902.1, the table in paragraph (b) under ``50 CFR'' is 
amended by revising entries for 648.6 and 648.11, in numerical order, 
to read as follows:


Sec.  902.1  OMB control numbers assigned pursuant to the paperwork 
Reduction Act

* * * * *

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                             Current OMB control number
 CFR part or section where the information  the information (All numbers
     collection requirement is located            begin with 0648-)
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                                * * * * *
 
50 CFR                                      ............................
                                * * * * *
648.6                                       -0202, -0555
                                * * * * *
 
648.11                                      -0202, -0555
                                * * * * *
 
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50 CFR Chapter VI

PART 648--FISHERIES OF THE NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

0
1. The authority citation for part 648 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

0
2. In Sec.  648.2, a new definition for ``Atlantic hagfish'' is added, 
in alphabetical order, to read as follows:


Sec.  648.2  Definitions.

* * * * *
    Atlantic hagfish means Myxine glutinosa.
* * * * *

0
3. In Sec.  648.6, paragraph (a)(1) is revised to read as follows:


Sec.  648.6  Dealer/processor permits.

    (a) * * *
    (1) All dealers of NE multispecies, monkfish, skates, Atlantic 
herring, Atlantic sea scallop, Atlantic deep-sea red crab, spiny 
dogfish, summer flounder, Atlantic surf clam, ocean quahog, Atlantic 
mackerel, squid, butterfish, scup, bluefish, tilefish, and black sea 
bass; Atlantic surf clam and ocean quahog processors; Atlantic hagfish 
dealers and/or processors, and Atlantic herring processors or dealers, 
as described in Sec.  648.2; must have been issued under this section, 
and have in their possession, a valid permit or permits for these 
species.
* * * * *

0
4. In Sec.  648.7, paragraph (a)(3)(iv) is added to read as follows:


Sec.  648.7  Recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

    (a) * * *
    (3) * * *
    (iv) Atlantic hagfish processors must complete and submit all 
sections of the Annual Processed Products Report.
* * * * *

0
5. In Sec.  648.11, paragraph (a) is revised to read as follows:


Sec.  648.11  At-sea sea sampler/observer coverage.

    (a) The Regional Administrator may request any vessel holding a 
permit for Atlantic sea scallops, NE multispecies,

[[Page 20039]]

monkfish, skates, Atlantic mackerel, squid, butterfish, scup, black sea 
bass, bluefish, spiny dogfish, Atlantic herring, tilefish, or Atlantic 
deep-sea red crab; or a moratorium permit for summer flounder; to carry 
a NMFS-approved sea sampler/observer. Also, any vessel or vessel owner/
operator that fishes for, catches or lands hagfish, or intends to fish 
for, catch, or land hagfish in or from the exclusive economic zone must 
carry a NMFS-approved sea sampler/observer when requested by the 
Regional Administrator in accordance with the requirements of this 
section.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 07-1953 Filed 4-20-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-S