[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 89 (Thursday, May 8, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26404-26405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-10547]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. Chapter 35).
    Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
    Title: Comprehensive Regional Decision Support Framework to 
Prioritize Sites for Coral Reef Conservation in the U.S. Virgin 
Islands: Survey of Professional SCUBA Divers.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-xxxx.
    Form Number(s): NA.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (request for a new information 
collection).
    Number of Respondents: 238.
    Average Hours per Response: 30 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 119.
    Needs and Uses: This request is for a new data collection to 
benefit marine resource managers in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). The 
National Ocean Service (NOS) proposes to collect data on the resource 
usage patterns, knowledge and values of the professional SCUBA diving 
community relative to coral reefs in the USVI. Data are needed to 
support conservation and management goals as defined under the Coral 
Reef Conservation Act (CRCA) (16 U.S.C. 6401 et seq.). The purpose of 
the CRCA is to advance conservation of coral reef ecosystems in the 
U.S. and Territories. Specifically, the Act requires the federal 
government to produce sound scientific information on the condition of 
coral reef ecosystems and threats to them, so that reefs may be better 
preserved, sustained and restored. The present data collection is one 
component of a larger project to produce a science-based decision 
support tool that will be used by resource managers to prioritize coral 
reefs in the USVI for the purposes of management under the CRCA.
    Researchers propose to collect information from the professional 
SCUBA diving community in the USVI, who are an important stakeholder 
group with much knowledge about this marine ecosystem. Information will 
be gathered from this community because of their experience diving on 
focal coral reefs and reliance on such ecosystems for their livelihood. 
The survey will ascertain which coral reef areas are needed/used most 
by persons in the professional SCUBA diving community. It will gather 
divers' opinions on the status and health of these coral reefs. 
Finally, the survey will collect information on the demographic 
characteristics of professional SCUBA diving community, along with the 
values they have for local coral reefs.
    Data gathered will be used to identify, rank and describe key 
characteristics of the coral reefs that are most important to the 
professional SCUBA diving community in the USVI, as well as their 
perception of reef status and resilience. The survey data will become 
one of several layers of information combined in a larger effort to 
objectively map the important reefs in the USVI. Knowledge of the 
locations of priority reefs, together with an assessment of the threats 
to those reefs, will provide information to prioritize management 
actions.

[[Page 26405]]

    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations; 
individuals or households.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    This information collection request may be viewed at reginfo.gov. 
Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce collections 
currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or faxed to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: May 2, 2014.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-10547 Filed 5-7-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-JE-P