[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 247 (Thursday, December 26, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70960-70961]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27739]
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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: Gulf of Mexico Electronic Logbook.
OMB Control Number: 0648-0543.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular (extension of a currently approved
information collection).
Number of Respondents: 1,410.
Average Hours per Response: 3.
Burden Hours: 4,230.
Needs and Uses: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act authorizes the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
(Council) to prepare and amend fishery management plans for any fishery
in waters under its jurisdiction. The National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) manages the commercial shrimp fishery in Federal waters of the
Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) under the Fishery Management Plan for the Shrimp
Fishery of the Gulf.
The electronic logbook (ELB) regulations for the Gulf shrimp
fishery may be found at 50 CFR 622.51(a)(2). These regulations require
vessel owners or operators issued a Federal commercial permit for Gulf
shrimp to participate in the NMFS-sponsored ELB reporting program.
There are approximately 1,410 valid or renewable Federal permits to
commercially harvest shrimp from Federal waters in the Gulf. Reporting
through a vessel's ELB, such owners or operators must provide
information regarding the size and number of shrimp trawls deployed,
the
[[Page 70961]]
type of bycatch reduction device, and turtle excluder device used for
each trip. The ELB unit automatically collects fishing effort data and
transmits those data via a cellular phone connection activated when the
vessel is within non-roaming cellular range. Compliance with the ELB
reporting requirements is required to renew the Gulf shrimp permit.
Monitoring shrimp vessels is challenging for NMFS when they operate
together with many other fishing vessels of differing sizes, gears
types, and fishing capabilities. Monitoring is made even more
challenging by seasonal variability in shrimp abundance and price and
the broad geographic distribution of the fleet. ELBs provide a precise
means of estimating the amount of shrimp fishing effort. Using ELBs to
estimate fishing effort serves an important role to help estimate
bycatch in the Gulf shrimp fleet.
Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.
Frequency: On occasion when fishing.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
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 this notice publication by
email to [email protected] or by fax to (202) 395-5806.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2019-27739 Filed 12-23-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P