[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 187 (Thursday, September 28, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66819-66820]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-21196]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Alaska American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permits

    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 June 27, 2023, during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Commerce.
    Title: Alaska American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permits.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0393.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (extension of a current 
information collection).
    Number of Respondents: 27.
    Average Hours per Response: AFA Permit: Rebuilt, Replacement, or 
Removed Vessel Application, 1 hour; Application for Transfer of Bering 
Sea Chinook Salmon PSC Allocations, 1 hour; Application for AFA Inshore 
Catcher Vessel Cooperative Permit, 2 hours; AFA Inshore Vessel Contract 
Fishing Notification, 4 hours; Application for Approval as an Entity to 
Receive Transferable Chinook Salmon PSC Allocation, 8 hours.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 246 hours.
    Needs and Uses: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), 
Alaska Regional Office, is requesting extension of a currently approved 
information collection that contains applications for permits and 
transfers necessary for NMFS to manage the Bering Sea and Aleutian 
Islands (BSAI) pollock fishery under the American Fisheries Act (AFA).
    NMFS manages the BSAI pollock fishery under the authority of the 
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 
1801 et seq.) and the AFA (16 U.S.C. 1851). The regulations 
implementing the AFA Program are at 50 CFR part 679, subpart F. The 
reporting requirements at 50 CFR part 679 form the basis for this 
collection of information.
    The AFA was signed into law in October 1998. The purpose of the AFA 
was to tighten U.S. ownership standards that had been exploited under 
the Anti-reflagging Act, and to provide the BSAI pollock fleet the 
opportunity to conduct their fishery in a more rational manner while 
protecting non-AFA participants in the other fisheries. The AFA 
established sector allocations in the BSAI pollock fishery, determined 
eligible vessels and processors, allowed the formation of cooperatives, 
set limits on the participation of AFA vessels in other fisheries, and 
imposed special catch weighing and monitoring requirements on AFA 
vessels.
    Any vessel used to engage in directed fishing for a non-western 
Alaska community development quota (non-CDQ) allocation of pollock in 
the Bering Sea and any shoreside processor, stationary floating 
processor, or mothership that receives pollock harvested in a non-CDQ 
directed pollock fishery in the Bering Sea must have a valid AFA permit 
on board the vessel or at the facility location at all times while non-
CDQ pollock is being harvested or processed.
    Permanent AFA permits (AFA catcher vessel, AFA catcher/processor, 
AFA mothership, and AFA inshore processor) for the BSAI pollock fishery 
had a one-time application deadline of December 1, 2000, and were 
issued with an indefinite expiration date. Therefore, except for 
participants that require annual or replacement permits, all AFA 
entities required to have a permit are already permitted.
    The type of information collected in this collection includes 
information on the applicants, transferors, transferees, permits, 
vessels, and Chinook salmon PSC transfer data. This information 
collection contains the following AFA permitting and transfer 
requirements:
    <bullet> The AFA Permit: Rebuilt, Replacement, or Removed Vessel 
Application is used by an owner of an AFA vessel to notify NMFS the 
vessel has been rebuilt; to request an AFA permit for a replacement 
catcher vessel, catcher/processor, or mothership; or to request removal 
of an AFA catcher vessel that is a member of an inshore cooperative and 
assign its catch history to another vessel or vessels in the same 
cooperative.
    <bullet> The Application for AFA Inshore Catcher Vessel Cooperative 
Permit is used annually by each AFA inshore catcher vessel cooperative 
to obtain an AFA Inshore Catcher Vessel Cooperative Permit and identify 
the vessels and processors that will be participating in the BSAI 
pollock fishery prior to the start of each fishing year.
    <bullet> The AFA Inshore Vessel Contract Fishing Notification is 
used by an AFA inshore cooperative that intends to contract with a non-
member vessel to harvest a portion of the cooperative's annual pollock 
allocation to notify NMFS of vessels that might be reporting with an 
alternative cooperative ID.
    <bullet> The Application for Approval as an Entity to Receive 
Transferable Chinook Salmon Prohibited Species Catch (PSC) Allocation 
is used by an entity representing the catcher/processor sector or the 
mothership sector to request approval to receive transferable Chinook 
salmon PSC allocations on behalf of members of the sector. Once 
approved, an entity is not required to reapply for or renew its status. 
Entities also use this form to update their contact and other 
information related to the entity and its members.
    <bullet> The Application for Transfer of Bering Sea Chinook Salmon 
PSC Allocations is used by an authorized representative of the catcher/
processor sector, the mothership sector, an inshore cooperative, or a 
CDQ group to transfer Chinook salmon PSC allocations to another 
entity's account.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations; Not-for-profit institutions.
    Frequency: Annually; As needed.

[[Page 66820]]

    Respondent's Obligation: Required to Obtain or Retain Benefits; 
Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Act; 
American Fisheries.
    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 0648-0393.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-21196 Filed 9-27-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P