[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 48 (Monday, March 11, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17418-17419]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-05132]


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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; Alaska American Fisheries Act Reports

    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 October 3, 2023 during a 60-day comment period. 
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Commerce.
    Title: Alaska American Fisheries Act Reports.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0401.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (extension of a current 
information collection, revision).
    Number of Respondents: 11.
    Average Hours per Response: AFA Cooperative Contract 8 hours; 
Bering Sea Pollock Fishery Incentive Plan Agreement 50 hours; Bering 
Sea Pollock Fishery IPA Annual Report 80 hours; IPA administrative 
appeals 4 hours.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 358 hours.
    Needs and Uses: The National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS), 
Alaska Region, requests revision and extension of a currently approved 
information collection for American Fisheries Act reporting 
requirements.
    NMFS Alaska Region manages the groundfish fisheries of the Bering 
Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area in the Exclusive Economic Zone 
off Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) 
prepared the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Management Area (FMP) under the authority of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C. 
1801 et seq., and other applicable laws. Regulations implementing the 
FMP are at 50 CFR part 679.
    The Bering Sea pollock fishery is managed under the American 
Fisheries Act (AFA). The purpose of the AFA was to tighten U.S. 
ownership standards for U.S. fishing vessels under the Anti-reflagging 
Act and to provide the Bering Sea pollock fleet the opportunity to 
conduct its fishery in a more rational manner while protecting non-AFA 
participants in the other fisheries. The AFA established sector 
allocations in the Bering Sea pollock fishery, determined eligible 
vessels and processors, allowed the formation of cooperatives, set 
limits on the participation of AFA vessels in other fisheries, and 
imposed special catch weighing and monitoring requirements on AFA 
vessels.
    This information collection contains the annual and periodic 
reporting requirements for AFA cooperatives. These requirements include 
reports about on-going fishing operations of the cooperatives and 
reports focused on efforts to minimize salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea 
pollock fishery. These reporting requirements are at 50 CFR 679.21 and 
679.61.
    This information is used to manage the Bering Sea pollock fishery, 
to evaluate the salmon bycatch management measures, and to provide the 
public with information about how the program operates and information 
about bycatch reduction under this program. This information collection 
provides the Council and NMFS with information about the organization 
and fishing operations of the AFA cooperatives, allocations to the AFA 
cooperatives, and the effectiveness of the Chinook salmon and chum 
salmon bycatch management measures. This information is necessary to 
ensure long-term conservation and abundance of salmon and pollock, 
maintain a healthy marine ecosystem, and provide maximum benefit to 
fishermen and communities that depend on salmon and pollock.

[[Page 17419]]

    The following changes have been made to this information 
collection. The AFA Annual Cooperative Report is removed from this 
collection because it was added to OMB Control Number 0648-0678 (Alaska 
Council Cooperative Annual Reports) in 2019 and was intended to be 
removed from OMB Control Number 0648-0401. The Incentive Plan Agreement 
(IPA) and the IPA Annual Report are renamed the Bering Sea Pollock 
Fishery Incentive Plan Agreement (IPA) and the Bering Sea Pollock 
Fishery IPA Annual Report, respectively to clarify the fishery that 
they are associated with.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Annually as needed.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to Obtain or Retain Benefits; 
Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act; American Fisheries Act. 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., and 
other applicable laws. Regulations implementing the FMP are at 50 CFR 
part 679.
    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 0648-0401.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-05132 Filed 3-8-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P