2020-25417. 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 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.