[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 243 (Monday, December 20, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 79330-79333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-31918]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
50 CFR Part 679
[Docket No. 100413185-0213-01]
RIN 0648-AY84
Groundfish Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska;
American Fisheries Act; Recordkeeping and Reporting
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: This action would amend the regulations implementing the
American Fisheries Act that require cooperatives participating in the
directed fishery for pollock in the Bering Sea to prepare and submit
preliminary annual reports to the North Pacific Regional Fishery
Management Council. The Council determined that the requirement for a
preliminary annual report is no longer necessary. However, this
proposed action would retain the requirement for the cooperatives to
submit a single annual report to the Council. This action is intended
to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and other
applicable laws.
DATES: Comments must be received no later than January 4, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional
Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region, NMFS,
Attn: Ellen Sebastian. You may submit comments, identified by RIN 0648-
AY84, by any one of the following methods:
Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov.
Fax: 907-586-7557, Attn: Ellen Sebastian.
[[Page 79331]]
Mail: P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802.
Hand Delivery to the Federal Building: 709 West 9th
Street, Room 420A, Juneau, AK.
No comments will be posted for public viewing until after the
comment period has closed. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All Personal Identifying
Information (for example, name, address) voluntarily submitted by the
commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential
Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information.
NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required
fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). You may submit attachments to
electronic comments in Microsoft Word, Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF
file formats only.
Electronic copies of this rule, the Regulatory Impact Review (RIR),
and the categorical exclusion memorandum may be obtained from the
Alaska Region Web site at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov.
Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other
aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this
final rule may be submitted to NMFS Alaska, Sustainable Fisheries
Division, e-mailed to [email protected], or faxed to 202-
395-7285.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patsy A. Bearden, 907-586-7228.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS manages the U.S. groundfish fisheries
in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area under the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the
Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (FMP). The North
Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) prepared the FMP under the
Magnuson-Stevens Act. Regulations implementing the FMP appear at
subpart F of 50 CFR part 679. General regulations that pertain to U.S.
fisheries appear at subpart H of 50 CFR part 600.
Background
In October 1998, Congress enacted the American Fisheries Act (AFA),
16 U.S.C. 1851 note, which ``rationalized'' the Bering Sea pollock
fishery by identifying the vessels and processors eligible to
participate in the fishery and allocating pollock among those eligible
participants. The AFA allocates 10 percent of the Bering Sea pollock
total allowable catch to the Western Alaska Community Development Quota
(CDQ) Program. After subtracting the CDQ Program allocation, and an
amount set aside for the catch of pollock in other Bering Sea
fisheries, the AFA allocates the remaining available pollock quota (the
``directed fishing allowance'') among the AFA inshore sector (50
percent), the AFA catcher/processor sector (40 percent), and the AFA
mothership sector (10 percent).
The AFA allowed for development of pollock fishing cooperatives in
the non-CDQ sectors. Thirteen cooperatives were developed as a result
of the AFA: Ten inshore catcher vessel cooperatives, two offshore
catcher/processor cooperatives, and one mothership cooperative. The
cooperatives further subdivide each cooperative's pollock allocation
among vessel owners in the cooperative through private contractual
agreements. The cooperatives manage these allocations to optimize their
harvest and to ensure that individual vessels and companies do not
harvest more than their agreed upon share of pollock. The cooperatives
also enforce contract provisions and participate in an intercooperative
agreement to reduce salmon bycatch by the directed pollock fishery.
The regulations establishing the AFA cooperative reporting
requirements were first published in December 30, 2002 (67 FR 79692).
These regulations require that each cooperative prepare preliminary and
final annual reports describing the cooperative's harvest of pollock,
prohibited species, and non-pollock groundfish, including species for
which NMFS establishes annual sideboards that limit incidental catch by
AFA participants. The purpose of the annual reports is, ``to assist the
Council and NMFS in meeting the requirements of section 210(a)(1) of
the AFA, which requires that NMFS make that information available to
the public in a manner that NMFS and the Council decide is
appropriate.'' 67 FR 79692. Another purpose of the cooperatives' AFA
cooperative annual report is to provide the Council information upon
which it can make decisions on cooperative allocations and sideboard
protection measures.
Currently, all AFA cooperatives must submit both preliminary and
final annual written reports on directed pollock fishing activity to
the Council. The preliminary report is due on December 1, one month
after the pollock fishery's closure on November 1, while the final
report is due on April 1 of the following year. The two reports result
from the Council's recognition that one month following the fishery's
closure may not be enough time for the AFA cooperative representatives
to compile all of the required information for the annual report.
Requiring cooperatives to file a second report also allowed
cooperatives to update catch and bycatch data after the end of the
year.
In August 2010, NMFS changed the deadline for submission of the
final AFA cooperative annual report from February 1 to April 1. (75 FR
53026) This new date allows the AFA cooperative report to arrive about
the same time as the annual Chinook Salmon Prohibited Species Catch
(PSC) Incentive Plan Agreement (IPA) and Non-chinook Salmon Inter-
Cooperative Agreement (ICA) reports, which describe salmon PSC in the
Bering Sea pollock fisheries.
In recent years, the Council has found that the preliminary AFA
cooperative report is not necessary to develop recommendations on final
groundfish specifications or on cooperative allocations and sideboard
protection measures. The Council instead uses the stock assessment
reports provided by the Council's Groundfish BSAI Plan Team, and the
total allowable catch (TAC) recommendations provided at the December
Council meeting to develop these recommendations.
The Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports for the
groundfish fisheries managed by the Council are compiled by the
respective Plan Teams from chapters contributed by scientists at the
NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center and the State of Alaska Department
of Fish and Game. These SAFE reports include separate stock assessment
and fishery evaluation sections. The stock assessment section includes
recommended acceptable biological catch (ABC) levels for each stock and
stock complex managed under the FMP. For purposes of determining TACs,
the data provided in these reports is a sufficient substitute for that
which is provided by the preliminary reports on the pollock fishery
from the cooperatives. The Council considers the ABC recommendations,
together with social and economic factors, in determining TACs and
other management strategies for the fisheries.
Therefore, at its June 2010 meeting, the Council determined that,
combined with the SAFE Report and TAC recommendations, a single annual
report from each AFA cooperative, renamed the ``annual AFA cooperative
report,'' will provide sufficient information to the Council, the
industry and the public about the directed fisheries for pollock in the
Bering Sea. If this proposed rule is enacted, the cooperatives will be
required to submit one report containing the same
[[Page 79332]]
information previously contained in two reports.
Each AFA cooperative annual report would be required to provide the
following information:
How the cooperative allocated pollock, other groundfish
species, and prohibited species catch among the vessels in the
cooperative;
The catch and discard of these species by area for each
vessel in the cooperative;
How the cooperative monitored fishing by its members; and
A description of any actions taken by the cooperative to
penalize any vessel that exceeded the allocations made to the vessel by
the cooperative.
This action does not result in a substantial change in the
reporting requirements. Some decrease in miscellaneous costs might
occur due to postage cost differences. It is also possible that the
burden would decrease due to planning and writing of one report instead
of two reports, one revising the other.
Classification
Pursuant to Section 304(b)(1)(A) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the
NMFS Assistant Administrator for Fisheries has determined that this
proposed rule is consistent with the FMP, other provisions of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, and other applicable law, subject to further
consideration after public comment.
The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business
Administration that this proposed rule, if adopted, would not have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
The basis of this certification is as follows.
The purpose of this proposed regulatory change is to remove a
preliminary reporting requirement for pollock fishery cooperatives.
These preliminary fishery reports are no longer necessary, and NMFS can
obtain the same information from other reports and from a single annual
report from the regulated cooperatives. The proposed action will not
increase any of the costs, which are small (see below), imposed by the
current regulations, and is instead likely to reduce them.
Specifically, the impact of this action will be twofold: (1)
Cooperatives will not be required to submit a preliminary report, as
well as a final report, thereby reducing their preparation and filing
costs; and (2) the Council will realize reduced administrative costs,
since it will no longer have to receive and process a preliminary
report as well as a final report. As noted above, if this rule is
promulgated, entities will no longer be required to produce a
preliminary report. The elimination of this requirement will impose no
costs on any entity that previously produced these reports; rather, it
will reduce their costs. Thus, this action has a net benefit to
directly regulated entities.
There are thirteen entities that, under the current regulations,
must file reports with NMFS. These entities are fishing cooperatives
that developed as a result of the AFA: Ten inshore catcher vessel
cooperatives, one cooperative for catcher vessels delivering to
catcher/processors, two offshore cooperatives for catcher/processors,
and one for catcher vessels delivering to motherships. Under the Small
Business Administration's (SBA) regulations implementing the RFA, a
small fishing business is defined as an entity that receives annual
revenues of no more than $4 million. All of the fishing cooperatives
currently subject to this rule have annual revenues of greater than $4
million, and therefore none of these cooperatives is a small entity as
defined by SBA.
Moreover, this rule, if implemented, will reduce the costs to all
entities affected by the rule. NMFS estimates that thirteen AFA
cooperative reports are submitted per year. Each of these is required
to submit an annual report. The total time required for a firm to
prepare and file both its preliminary and final reports is estimated to
be 12 hours for each respondent. Thus, at $75/hour, the total estimated
cost for submitting both reports currently is $900. This action would
permit some reduction in these costs, because the estimated burden for
the annual report is 8 hours for a total estimated cost of $600. The
estimated total savings would be $300, a rough estimate of the likely
upper bound cost savings. The Council is estimated to incur $275 in
costs for processing these preliminary reports. There would be some
cost savings here, as well. Further analysis of the economic impact is
found in the RIR, available at ADDRESSES above. The RIR describes the
potential size, distribution, and magnitude of the economic impacts
that this action may have on affected entities.
Based upon the above analysis, the proposed rule would not impose
economic impacts on any of the affected entities. Accordingly, an
initial regulatory flexibility analysis is not required, and none has
been prepared.
This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for
purposes of Executive Order 12866.
This proposed rule contains collection-of-information requirements
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and which have been
approved by the Office for Management and Budget (OMB) under OMB
Control Number 0648-0401. Notwithstanding any other provision of the
law, no person is required to respond to, and no person shall be
subject to penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of
information subject to the requirements of the PRA, unless that
collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control
number.
Public reporting burden per response is estimated to average 8
hours for an AFA preliminary annual report and 4 hours for an AFA final
annual report. The AFA preliminary annual report would be removed with
this action and the AFA final annual report would be renamed the AFA
cooperative annual report, which is estimated to average 8 hours per
response.
These estimates of public reporting burden include the time for
reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and
maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the
collection-of-information.
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of
this data collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, to
NMFS (see ADDRESSES); e-mail to [email protected] or fax to
202-395-7285.
List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 679
Alaska, Fisheries, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: December 15, 2010.
John Oliver,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Operations, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
For the reasons set out in the preamble, 50 CFR part 679 is
proposed to be amended as follows:
PART 679--FISHERIES OF THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE OFF ALASKA
1. The authority citation for part 679 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 773 et seq.; 1801 et seq.; 3631 et seq.;
Pub L. 108-447.
2. In Sec. 679.61, revise (f) introductory text, paragraph (f)(1),
and paragraph (f)(2) introductory text to read as follows:
Sec. 679.61 Formation and operation of fishery cooperatives.
* * * * *
(f) Any fishery cooperative governed by this section must submit an
annual
[[Page 79333]]
written report on fishing activity to the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council, 605 West 4th Avenue, Suite 306, Anchorage, AK
99501. The Council will make copies of each report available to the
public upon request.
(1) What is the submission deadline? The cooperative must submit
the annual report by April 1 of each year. Annual reports must be
postmarked or received by the submission deadline.
(2) What information must be included? The annual report must
contain, at a minimum:
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2010-31918 Filed 12-17-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P