[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 148 (Thursday, August 1, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62724-62725]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16902]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[RTID 0648-XE144]


Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Bering Sea 
and Aleutian Islands Management Area; Cost Recovery Fee Notice for the 
Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Program

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

ACTION: Notice of standard prices fee percentage.

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SUMMARY: NMFS publishes the fee percentage for cost recovery for the 
Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative (PCTC) Program. The fee percentage for 
2024 is 1.92 percent. This notice is intended to provide the 2024 fee 
percentage to calculate the required payment for cost recovery fees due 
by August 31, 2024.

DATES: The fee percentage is valid on August 1, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charmaine Weeks, Fee Coordinator, 907-
586-7231.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 304(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) authorizes and requires that NMFS 
collect cost recovery fees for limited access privilege programs. Cost 
recovery fees include NMFS' actual costs directly related to its 
management, data collection, and enforcement of the programs. Section 
304(d) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates that cost recovery fees not 
exceed 3 percent of the annual ex-vessel value of fish harvested under 
any program subject to a cost recovery fee and that the fee be 
collected either at the time of landing, filing of a landing report, or 
sale of such fish during a fishing season or in the last quarter of the 
calendar year in which the fish is harvested.
    NMFS manages the PCTC Program as a limited access privilege 
program. On August 8, 2023, NMFS published a final rule to implement 
this Program (88 FR 53704). The PCTC Program allocates total allowable 
catch (TAC) of Pacific cod to trawl catcher vessels and processors in 
the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands area (BSAI). Participants in the 
PCTC Program must form a cooperative and associate with a processor. 
The PCTC Program includes a process for calculating and administering 
cost recovery fees under 50 CFR 679.135. The annual PCTC Program cost 
recovery process builds on other existing cost recovery requirements 
implemented under other programs. The fee liability is based on the ex-
vessel value of fish harvested in the PCTC Program. Each year, the 
Regional Administrator publishes a notice announcing the fee percentage 
in the Federal Register and sends invoices to cooperatives before July 
31.
    Each PCTC Program cooperative is responsible for payment of the 
cost recovery fee assessed on Pacific cod landed under the PCTC 
Program. Each cooperative must submit any cost recovery fee liability 
payment(s) no later than August 31. The total dollar amount of the fee 
due is determined by multiplying the NMFS published fee percentage by 
the annual ex-vessel value of Cooperative Quota (CQ) landings under the 
Program, as described in this notice.
    Failure to pay cost recovery fee liabilities by August 31st will 
result in NMFS disapproval of a cooperative's application to transfer 
CQ or issue a CQ permit the following year until full payment of the 
fee liability is received

[[Page 62725]]

by NMFS. NMFS will not issue a CQ permit until NMFS receives a complete 
application for CQ issuance and confirmation of the full payment of any 
cost recovery fee liability.

Standard Price

    For purposes of calculating cost recovery fees, NMFS uses a 
standard ex-vessel price (standard price) for Pacific Cod. A standard 
price is determined using information on landings purchased (volume) 
and ex-vessel value paid (value). NMFS annually receives information 
used to calculate the Pacific cod standard price in the existing Bering 
Sea and Aleutian Island (BSAI) Pacific cod Ex-vessel Volume and Value 
Report, which is submitted in early November of each year. NMFS uses 
this existing data source to calculate standard prices and thus 
determine the annual PCTC Program fishery value, which, along with the 
direct program costs, is used to calculate the annual PCTC Program cost 
recovery fee percentage. The standard prices are described in U.S. 
dollars per pound for landings made during the previous year. NMFS 
published the standard price of 0.42 cents per pound for Pacific cod 
for 2024 in the Federal Register on November 24, 2023 (88 FR 82336).
    Each landing made under the PCTC Program is multiplied by the 
standard price to arrive at an ex-vessel value for each landing. These 
values are summed together to arrive at the ex-vessel value of Pacific 
Cod (fishery value).

Fee Percentage

    Annually, NMFS calculates the applicable fee percentage according 
to the factors and methods described at Sec.  679.135 for the PCTC 
Program. NMFS used the standard price of 0.42 cents to calculate the 
fee percentage applied to landings made in 2024. NMFS determined the 
fee percentage that applies to landings made in the A and B seasons, 
which extend from January 20 to June 10, 2024, by dividing the total 
costs directly related to the management, data collection, and 
enforcement of the program (direct program costs) by the value of the 
catch subject to the cost recovery fee.
    NMFS captures direct PCTC program costs through an established 
accounting system that allows NMFS staff to track labor, travel, 
contracts, rent, and procurement costs. For 2024, the direct program 
costs for the PCTC Program were tracked from October 1, 2023 to June 
30, 2024. NMFS began tracking PCTC Program management costs after the 
effective date of the final rule implementing the PCTC Program (88 FR 
53704, August 8, 2023). NMFS will publish an annual report on the NMFS 
Alaska Region website in the first quarter of 2025 that summarizes 
direct program costs for the PCTC Program.
    Using the fee percentage formula described generally above, the 
estimated percentage of direct program costs to fishery value for the 
2024 calendar year is 1.92 percent for the PCTC Program. For 2024, NMFS 
applied the fee percentage to each PCTC landing that was debited from a 
CQ allocation between January 20 and June 10 to calculate the fee 
liability for each cooperative. A PCTC cooperative's 2024 fee payments 
must be submitted to NMFS on or before August 31, 2024. Payment must be 
made in accordance with the payment methods set forth in Sec.  
679.135(a)(3).
    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

    Dated: July 26, 2024.
Lindsay Fullenkamp,
Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2024-16902 Filed 7-31-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P