Comment from Ben Pittenger

Attached please find a pdf document with comments pertaining to FDMS Docket Number NOAA-NMFS-2012-0030. The Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (MSA) guarantees the public the right to participate in the administration and implementation of the MSA. The MSA also requires that its administration is to be based upon the best scientific information available. The confidentiality provisions of the MSA delay, limit or preclude the public’s access to data, and as a result the public’s ability to develop scientific analysis and make comments to the Councils in a timely manner is limited. Therefore the confidentiality provisions in the MSA directly conflict with the MSA’s express right for the public to participate in fishery management. Because the entire MSA, including both of these conflicting provisions, should be implemented through the rules currently under consideration, regulations that establish the scope of confidentiality should be drafted as narrowly as possible in order to provide all sectors of the public the greatest possible access to information and opportunity to exercise their express right to participate in the administration and implementation of the MSA.