[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 223 (Wednesday, November 18, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73461-73462]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25417]


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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; Highly Migratory Species Dealer Reporting Family of Forms

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite 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. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on July 31, 2020, (85 FR 46070) during a 60-day 
comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public 
comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
    Title: Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Dealer Reporting Family of 
Forms.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0040.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (revision and renewal of a 
current information collection).
    Number of Respondents: 7,957.
    Average Hours per Response: 5 minutes each for catch document, 
statistical document, and re-export certificate; 15 minutes for catch 
document/statistical document/re-export certificate validation by 
government official; 120 minutes for authorization of non-governmental 
catch document/statistical document/re-export certificate validation; 2 
minutes for daily Atlantic bluefin tuna landing reports; 3 minutes for 
daily Atlantic bluefin tuna landing reports from pelagic longline and 
purse seine vessels; 1 minute for Atlantic bluefin tuna tagging; 15 
minutes for biweekly electronic Atlantic bluefin tuna dealer landing 
reports; 15 minutes for HMS international trade biweekly electronic 
reports; 15 minutes for weekly electronic HMS dealer landing reports 
(e-dealer); 5 minutes for negative weekly electronic HMS dealer landing 
reports (e-dealer); 15 minutes for voluntary fishing vessel and catch 
forms; 2 minutes for provision of HMS dealer email address.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 20,260.
    Needs and Uses: This collection serves as a family of forms for 
Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS) dealer reporting, including 
purchases of HMS from domestic fishermen, and the import, export, and/
or re-export of HMS, including federally managed tunas, sharks, and 
swordfish.
    Transactions covered under this collection include purchases of 
Atlantic HMS from domestic fishermen; and the import/export of all 
bluefin tuna, frozen bigeye tuna, southern bluefin tuna or swordfish 
under the HMS International Trade Program, regardless of geographic 
area of origin. This information is used to monitor the harvest of 
domestic fisheries, and/or track international trade of internationally 
managed species. We are currently revising this information collection 
to implement mandatory electronic, web-based reporting to replace the 
downloadable hard copy forms currently used for biweekly bluefin dealer 
reporting and international trade reporting of bluefin tuna, swordfish, 
and frozen bigeye tuna. No other changes in the reporting program are 
being implemented at this time, and no significant changes in the 
number of responses or burden estimates are anticipated aside from 
removal of postage costs for returning the completed forms by mail.
    The domestic dealer reporting covered by this collection includes 
weekly electronic landing reports and negative reports (i.e., reports 
of no activity) of Atlantic swordfish, sharks, bigeye tuna, albacore, 
yellowfin, and skipjack tunas (collectively referred to as BAYS tunas), 
and electronic biweekly and daily landing reports for bluefin tuna, 
including tagging of individual fish. Because of the individual bluefin 
quota (IBQ) management system (RIN 0648-BC09), electronic entry of IBQ-
related landing data is required for Atlantic bluefin tuna purchased 
from Longline and Purse seine category vessels.
    International trade tracking programs are required by both the 
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) 
and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to account for 
all international trade of covered species. The United States is a 
member of ICCAT and IATTC and required by ATCA and the Tunas Convention 
Act (16 U.S.C. 951 et. seq., consecutively) to promulgate regulations 
as necessary and appropriate to implement ICCAT and IATTC 
recommendations. These programs require that a statistical document or 
catch document accompany each export from and import to a member 
nation, and that a re-export certificate accompany each re-export. The 
international trade reporting requirements covered by this collection 
include implementation of catch document, statistical document, and re-
export certificate trade tracking programs for bluefin tuna, frozen 
bigeye tuna, and swordfish. An electronic catch document program for 
bluefin tuna (EBCD) was recommended by ICCAT and implemented by the 
United States in 2016 (0648-BF17). United States regulations 
implementing ICCAT statistical document and catch document programs 
require statistical documents and catch documents for international 
transactions of the covered species from all ocean areas, so Pacific 
imports and exports must also be accompanied by statistical documents 
and catch documents. Since there are statistical document programs in 
place under other international conventions (e.g., the Indian Ocean 
Tuna Commission), a statistical document or catch document from another 
program may be used to satisfy the statistical document requirement for 
imports into the United States.
    Dealers who internationally trade Southern bluefin tuna are 
required to participate in a trade tracking program to ensure that 
imported Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna will not be intentionally 
mislabeled as ``southern bluefin'' to circumvent reporting 
requirements. This action is authorized under ATCA, which provides for 
the promulgation of regulations as may be necessary and appropriate to 
carry out ICCAT recommendations.
    In addition to statistical document, catch document, and re-export 
certificate requirements, this collection includes biweekly reports to 
complement trade tracking statistical documents by summarizing 
statistical document data and collecting additional economic 
information.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Daily for bluefin tuna landings reports and tagging, 
weekly for HMS dealer reports, biweekly for bluefin tuna dealer and 
international trade reports, and annually for non-governmental catch 
document/statistical document/re-export certificate

[[Page 73462]]

validation and provision of new HMS dealer email address.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Under the provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens 
Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), the 
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for management 
of the Nation's marine fisheries. NMFS must also promulgate 
regulations, as necessary and appropriate, to carry out obligations the 
United States (U.S.) undertakes internationally regarding tuna 
management through the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act (ATCA, 16 U.S.C. 
971 et seq.).
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0648-0040.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-25417 Filed 11-17-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P