[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 131 (Friday, July 8, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44592-44593]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-16173]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


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: West Coast Region Federal Fisheries Permits--Northwest.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0203.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular (revision and extension of a currently 
approved information collection).
    Number of Respondents: 537.
    Average Hours per Response: Permit renewals, 20 minutes; Permit 
transfers,

[[Page 44593]]

30 minutes; Sablefish ownership interest form, 10 minutes ; EFP 
Applications, 32 hours; EFP Trip Notifications 2 minutes; EFP Harvest 
Plans: 16 hours; EFP Data Reports: 2 hours;; EFP Summary Reports: 
interim report, 4 hours; final report, 20 hours.
    Burden Hours: 2,000.
    Needs and Uses: This request is for extension of a currently 
approved information collection.
    The Magnuson-Stevens Act (16 U.S.C. 1801) provides that the 
Secretary of Commerce is responsible for the conservation and 
management of marine fisheries resources in Exclusive Economic Zone (3-
200 miles) of the United States (U.S.). NOAA Fisheries, West Coast 
Region--Northwest manages the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery in the 
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Washington, Oregon, and California 
under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. The 
regulations implementing the Pacific Groundfish Fishery require that 
those vessels participating in the limited entry fishery to be 
registered to a valid limited entry permit. Participation in the 
fishery and access to a limited entry permit has been restricted to 
control the overall harvest capacity. The regulations implementing the 
limited entry program are found at 50 CFR part 660, subpart G.
    NOAA Fisheries seeks comment on the extension of permit information 
collections required for: (1) Renewal and transfer of Pacific Coast 
Groundfish limited entry permits; (2) implementation of certain 
provisions of the sablefish permit stacking program as provided for at 
50 CFR 660.231 and 660.25; and (3) issuing and fulfilling the terms and 
conditions of certain exempted fishing permits (EFPs).
    Also, NOAA Fisheries requires an information collection to 
implement certain aspects of the sablefish permit stacking program 
which prevents excessive fleet consolidation. As part of the annual 
renewal process, NOAA Fisheries requires a corporation or partnership 
that owns or holds (as vessel owner) a sablefish endorsed permit to 
provide a complete ownership interest form listing all individuals with 
ownership interest in the entity. Similarly, any sablefish endorsed 
permit transfer involving registration of a business entity requires an 
ownership interest form if either the permit owner or vessel owner is a 
corporation or partnership. This information is used to determine if 
individuals own or hold sablefish permits in excess of the limit of 3 
permits. Also, for transfer requests made during the sablefish primary 
season (April 1st through October 31st), the permit owner is required 
to report the remaining tier pounds not yet harvested on the sablefish 
endorsed permit at the time of transfer.
    Applicants for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) must submit written 
information that allows NOAA Fisheries and the Pacific Fishery 
Management Council to evaluate the proposed exempted fishing project 
activities and weigh the benefits and costs of the proposed activities. 
The Council makes a recommendation on each EFP application and for 
successful applicants, NOAA Fisheries issues the EFPs which contains 
terms and conditions for the project including various reporting 
requirements. The information included in an application is specified 
at 50 CFR 600.745(b)(2) and the Council Operating Procedure #19. Permit 
holders are required to file preseason harvest plans, interim and/or 
final summary reports on the results of the project and in some cases 
individual vessels and other permit holders are required to provide 
data reports (logbooks and/or catch reports The results of EFPs are 
commonly used to explore ways to reduce effort on depressed stocks, 
encourage innovation and efficiency in the fishery, provide access to 
constrained stocks which directly measuring the bycatch associated with 
such strategies and evaluate/revise current and proposed management 
measures.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations, 
individuals or households, not-for-profit institutions; state, local or 
tribal government.
    Frequency: Annually, semi-annually, monthly and on occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    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 fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: July 5, 2016.
Sarah Brabson,
NOAA PRA Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-16173 Filed 7-7-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-22-P