Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 47 / Monday, March 12, 2007 / Rules and Regulations 10935 

criteria set forth in § 648.160(f)(1) have 

been met. The revised bluefish quotas 

for calendar year 2007 are: New York, 

1,034,278 lb (469,141 kg); and Virginia, 

868,660 lb (394,018 kg). 

Classification 

This action is taken under 50 CFR 

part 648 and is exempt from review 

under Executive Order 12866. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: March 6, 2007. 

Alan D. Risenhoover, 

Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, 

National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 07–1148 Filed 3–7–07; 2:38 pm] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 660 

[Docket No. 061113298–7046–02; I.D. 

110106A] 

RIN 0648–AU91 

Fisheries Off West Coast States; 

Highly Migratory Species Fisheries 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: NMFS publishes this final 

rule to revise the method for renewing 

and replacing permits issued under the 

Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for 

U.S. West Coast Fisheries for Highly 

Migratory Species (HMS). Permits are 

required for all commercial vessels and 

all recreational charter vessels 

participating in HMS fisheries managed 

under the FMP. The final rule modifies 

the renewal process by substituting the 

last day of the month corresponding to 

the last digit of the vessel’s 

identification number with the last day 

of the vessel owner’s birth month as the 

expiration date. The rule also requires 

that vessel owners requiring a duplicate 

permit to submit a completed 

application form to NMFS. These 

regulations are needed to improve the 

efficiency and timeliness of the permit 

system. The proposed rule is adopted 

without change. 

DATES: Effective April 11, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Requests to renew an HMS 

permit or to apply for a replacement 

permit may be submitted by any of the 

following methods: 

• Fax: 562–980–4047, Attn. Permits 

Coordinator. 

• Telephone: 562–980–4030. 

• Mail to: Permits Coordinator, 

Sustainable Fisheries Division (SFD) 

Southwest Region, NMFS, 501 West 

Ocean Boulevard, Suite 4200, Long 

Beach, CA 90802. 

• E-mail: 

HMSpermitrenewal.swr@noaa.gov 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mark Helvey, NMFS, Southwest Region, 

SFD, (562) 980–4040. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These 

regulations modify the process NMFS 

uses to renew and replace permits in the 

U. S. West Coast HMS fisheries 

managed under the HMS FMP. The FMP 

was prepared by the Pacific Fishery 

Management Council and was 

implemented through regulations at 50 

CFR part 660 under authority of the 

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act 

(Magnuson-Stevens Act), 16 U.S.C. 1801 

et seq. 

Background 

NMFS requires a permit for all 

commercial vessels and all recreational 

charter vessels that fish for HMS in the 

U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off 

the States of California, Oregon, and 

Washington, or land or transship HMS 

shoreward of the outer boundary of the 

U.S. EEZ off the States of California, 

Oregon, and Washington. The purpose 

of the HMS permit is to identify vessels 

in the HMS fisheries so that NMFS 

knows those participants who need to 

be contacted when management 

information is required and who to 

notify when potential management 

actions affecting the fisheries are being 

considered. 

The requirement for a permit was 

established by final rule implementing 

the approved portions of the FMP for 

HMS published on April 7, 2004 (69 FR 

18444). These permits were initially 

issued in 2005 after publishing a 

Federal Register notice on February 10, 

2005 (70 FR 7022), that announced 

approval by the Office of Management 

and Budget of the collection-ofinformation components of the permit 

system. 

Permit Renewal 

Permits are issued to the managing 

owner of a specific vessel for a 2-year 

term. The initial issuance of HMS 

permits began in 2005 and these permits 

expire in 2007. NMFS initially 

implemented a permit term renewal 

process intentionally staggered so that 

there will be less likelihood of an 

excessive number of renewals at any 

one time of the year. NMFS used the last 

day of the month designated by the last 

digit of the vessel identification number 

as determining the renewal date for 

expiring permits (e.g., if the vessel 

identification number ends in 3, the 

renewal date is March 31, 2 years later). 

Use of this criterion extends the renewal 

process over a 10-month term: January 

through October. 

Because of the administrative burden 

of processing the high number of 

permits in effect, this final rule modifies 

the criterion by using the last day of the 

managing vessel owner’s birth month as 

the expiration date. The managing 

vessel owner’s date of birth is required 

in the Pacific HMS Vessel Permit 

Application and is already contained in 

the Pacific HMS Vessel Permit database. 

NMFS believes that staggering the 

renewal process over 12 months rather 

than 10 months will improve the 

efficiency of the permit renewal process. 

The first renewal date under this new 

system will be the last day of the vessel 

owner’s birthday month in the second 

calender year after the permit is issued. 

NMFS anticipates that the system 

implemented by this final rule should 

result in delivery of permits to vessel 

operators in a more efficient manner. 

This final rule does not require any new 

information to be provided by the 

applicant. A Southwest Region Pacific 

HMS Vessel Permit Application form 

may still be obtained from the SFD (see 

ADDRESSES) or downloaded from the 

Southwest Region home page (http:// 

swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/permits.htm) to 

apply for a permit under this section. A 

completed application is one that 

contains all the required information 

and signatures. NMFS intends to contact 

vessel owners with a renewal notice by 

mail 3 months in advance of their 

permit expiration date. This procedure 

should provide additional time for 

fishermen to renew their HMS permits 

before the start of the fishing season. 

NMFS will also allow HMS fishermen to 

renew their permits even earlier by 

contacting NMFS directly (see 

ADDRESSES). 

Replacement Permits 

Replacement permits are issued by 

NMFS to vessel owners to replace lost 

or mutilated permits. Vessel owners 

with a lost or mutilated permit 

primarily notify NMFS by telephone 

when requesting a replacement permit. 

NMFS has never established a formal 

process to provide replacement permits, 

but the number of requests for 

replacements over the past year make it 

clear that such a process is required. 

Under this regulation, vessel owners 

requiring a replacement permit must 

submit a new completed application 


hsrobinson on PROD1PC76 with RULES
10936 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 47 / Monday, March 12, 2007 / Rules and Regulations 

form to NMFS by mail or fax (see 

ADDRESSES). 

Comments and Responses 

A summary of the comments on the 

proposed rule and responses to those 

comments follow. After considering 

these comments, NMFS is adopting the 

proposed rule as final without change. 

Use of Birth Month 

Comment 1: Several commenters 

objected to the use of birth month as the 

criterion used to establish the expiration 

date. They stated that the birth month 

of many vessel owners may coincide 

during months when they could be at 

sea. 

Response: This final rule only 

substitutes the month used to determine 

the expiration of a 2-year term HMS 

permit from the last digit of the vessel’s 

identification number to the birth 

month of the vessel owner. When NMFS 

originally set up the process for permit 

renewals in a final rule published in 

2004 and implemented in April 2005, it 

announced that it would use the last 

digit of the vessel identification number 

of an owner’s vessel to determine the 

month the permit would be renewed. 

Based on a 0 to 9 numbering system, 

this staggered the renewal process over 

a 10-month time period. This procedure 

was designed at a time when NMFS 

believed that approximately 1300 HMS 

permits would be issued for HMS 

fisheries. Since the HMS permit 

program originated in April 2005, 

NMFS has issued approximately 2,000 

HMS permits. Use of the vessel owner’s 

birth month allows NMFS to stagger the 

issuance of permits over a 12 month 

time period and thereby provide more 

time to complete the renewal process. 

However, NMFS is sensitive to the 

concerns raised by commenters 

pertaining to a permit expiring when 

they may be at sea. NMFS will notify 

each fisherman by mail 3 months in 

advance of the expiration of her/his 

HMS permit. NMFS will also allow 

fishermen to contact NMFS directly and 

request renewal of their permit prior to 

the expiration date (see ADDRESSES). 

Standard Annual Renewal Date 

Comment 2: Some commenters 

suggested that NMFS standardize the 

procedure for renewing permits and do 

it at one time of the year such at the end 

or beginning of the calender year when 

many fishermen are not fishing and are 

in port. 

Response: NMFS had always intended 

that HMS permit renewals be staggered 

over an extended period to eliminate the 

likelihood of an extreme permit renewal 

accumulation at any one time of the 

year. NMFS decided in 2004 that a 

staggered process would be more 

efficient for the agency and more likely 

to result in the delivery of permits to 

each fisherman in a timely manner. 

Comment 3: Regarding the idea of 

processing all permit renewals within a 

shorter time frame, one commenter 

believed that if NMFS could place two 

people on permit renewals full time for 

two weeks, that NMFS could renew up 

to 1600 permits within that period. 

Response: In almost 2 years of 

processing HMS permit applications, 

NMFS has learned that approximately 

30% percent of the applications are 

lacking some type of information (e.g., 

address, date of birth etc.). In order to 

complete the application, NMFS must 

contact the vessel owner either by 

phone or mail to obtain the omitted 

information. NMFS has learned that any 

followup effort on its part does extend 

the time required to process a permit 

application especially if the vessel 

owner is difficult to reach. NMFS had 

always intended that HMS permit 

renewals be staggered over an extended 

period to eliminate the likelihood of an 

extreme permit renewal accumulation at 

any one time of the year which might 

prevent delivery of permits to each 

fisherman in a timely manner. 

Changing the Term of the Permit 

Comment 4: One commenter 

suggested staggering the permit 

renewals on a yearly basis by providing 

three different terms or periods of 

duration for future renewals. By this 

method, one-third of the permits would 

have a term of 1-year, one-third would 

have a 2-year term, and the last third 

would have a 3-year term. Then after the 

first year, the 1-year group would be 

ready for renewal. In the second year, 

the 2-year group would be up for 

renewal and so on. By using this system, 

NMFS would only have to renew one 

third of all HMS permits each year and 

thereby could conduct the renewal 

process in a much shorter time frame. 

Response: NMFS appreciates 

recommendations from the fishing 

industry for simplifying processes that 

affect them. However, the intent of this 

final rule is only to change the criterion 

for determining what month a vessel 

owner’s HMS permit comes up for 

renewal. There is no intent to change 

the term of the permit. When NMFS 

originally promulgated proposed 

regulations for the HMS permit process 

in 2003, it was considering setting the 

term of the permits at 5 years. However, 

after reviewing the experience of other 

fisheries and other areas of the country, 

it became clear to NMFS that a permit 

period of 2 years or less is more 

effective for ensuring accurate 

information about patterns of fishery 

participation and the names and 

addresses of participants in the 

fisheries. NMFS believes now, as it did 

then, that a permit term of more than 2 

years increases the probability that 

changes in vessel names and owners 

and interests of related businesses will 

not be accurately tracked compared to a 

2-year or less term. A longer term would 

reduce NMFS’ effectiveness in advising 

HMS participants of changes in 

management measures or in permit and 

reporting requirements. 

Combining Permit Renewals 

Comment 5: In addition to processing 

all HMS permits renewals at one time of 

the year, one commenter also suggested 

combining all permits handled by 

NMFS (e.g., HMS, Federal groundfish 

permits, etc.) into a single process. The 

commenter mentioned that this would 

simplify the permit requirements and 

minimize complications to fishermen to 

ensure that they were in compliance 

with all permits. 

Response: NMFS makes note of this 

comment and recognizes it as a laudable 

objective but such a recommendation 

goes beyond the scope of this 

rulemaking. 

Classification 

This final rule revises procedures for 

renewing and replacing permits issued 

under regulations implementing the 

HMS FMP published at 69 FR 18444 on 

April 7, 2004. The Regional 

Administrator, NMFS Southwest 

Region, determined that this rule is 

consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act, codified at 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

This final rule has been determined to 

be not significant for the purposes of 

Executive Order (E.O.) 12866. 

The Chief Counsel for Regulation of 

the Department of Commerce certified 

to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 

Small Business Administration during 

the proposed rule stage (71 FR 70939) 

that this action would not have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

The factual basis for the certification 

was published in the proposed rule and 

is not repeated here. No comments were 

received regarding this certification. As 

a result, a regulatory flexibility analysis 

was not required and none was 

prepared. 

This final rule contains a collectionof-information requirement subject to 

the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and 

which has been approved by OMB 

under control number 0648–0204. 

Public reporting burden for preparing an 


hsrobinson on PROD1PC76 with RULES
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 47 / Monday, March 12, 2007 / Rules and Regulations 10937 

HMS Vessel Permit Application is 

estimated to average 0.42 hours per 

vessel, including 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 these burden 

estimates or any other aspect of this data 

collection, including suggestions for 

reducing the burden, to NMFS (see 

ADDRESSES) and by e-mail to David 

Rostker@omb.eop.gov, or fax to (202) 

395–7285. 

Notwithstanding any other provision 

of the law, no person is required to 

respond to, and no person shall be 

subject to a 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. 

List of Subjects in 50 CFR Part 660 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Permits. 

Dated: March 6, 2007. 

Samuel D. Rauch III, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator for 

Regulatory Programs, National Marine 

Fisheries Service. 

■ For the reasons set out in the 

preamble, NMFS amends 50 CFR part 

660 as follows: 

PART 660—FISHERIES OFF WEST 

COAST STATES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 660 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

■ 2. In § 660.707, paragraphs (b)(4) and 

(b)(5) are revised to read as follows: 

§ 660.707 Permits. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(4) Permits issued under this subpart 

will remain valid until the first date of 

renewal, and permits may be 

subsequently be renewed for 2-year 

terms. The first date of renewal will be 

the last day of the vessel owner’s birth 

month in the second calendar year after 

the permit is issued (e.g., if the birth 

month is March and the permit is issued 

on October 3, 2007, the permit will 

remain valid through March 31, 2009). 

(5) Replacement permits may be 

issued without charge to replace lost or 

mutilated permits. Replacement permits 

may be obtained by submitting to the 

SFD c/o the Regional Administrator a 

complete, signed vessel permit 

application. An application for a 

replacement permit is not considered a 

new application. 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. E7–4429 Filed 3–9–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 679 

[Docket No. 070213032–7032–01; I.D. 

030607F] 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by 

Vessels Catching Pacific Cod for 

Processing by the Inshore Component 

in the Western Regulatory Area of the 

Gulf of Alaska 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary rule; closure. 

SUMMARY: NMFS is prohibiting directed 

fishing for Pacific cod by vessels 

catching Pacific cod for processing by 

the inshore component in the Western 

Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska 

(GOA). This action is necessary to 

prevent exceeding the 2007 total 

allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific cod 

apportioned to vessels catching Pacific 

cod for processing by the inshore 

component of the Western Regulatory 

Area of the GOA. 

DATES: Effective 1200 hrs, Alaska local 

time (A.l.t.), March 8, 2007, until 1200 

hrs, A.l.t., September 1, 2007. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jennifer Hogan, 907–586–7228. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the groundfish fishery in the 

GOA exclusive economic zone 

according to the Fishery Management 

Plan for Groundfish of the Gulf of 

Alaska (FMP) prepared by the North 

Pacific Fishery Management Council 

under authority of the MagnusonStevens Fishery Conservation and 

Management Act. Regulations governing 

fishing by U.S. vessels in accordance 

with the FMP appear at subpart H of 50 

CFR part 600 and 50 CFR part 679. 

The A season allocation of the 2007 

TAC of Pacific cod apportioned to 

vessels catching Pacific cod for 

processing by the inshore component of 

the Western Regulatory Area of the GOA 

is 7,813 metric tons (mt) as established 

by the 2007 and 2008 harvest 

specifications for groundfish of the GOA 

(72 FR 9676, March 5, 2007). 

In accordance with § 679.20(d)(1)(i), 

the Administrator, Alaska Region, 

NMFS (Regional Administrator), has 

determined that the 2007 TAC of Pacific 

cod apportioned to vessels catching 

Pacific cod for processing by the inshore 

component of the Western Regulatory 

Area of the GOA will soon be reached. 

Therefore, the Regional Administrator is 

establishing a directed fishing 

allowance of 7,613 mt, and is setting 

aside the remaining 200 mt as bycatch 

to support other anticipated groundfish 

fisheries. In accordance with 

§ 679.20(d)(1)(iii), the Regional 

Administrator finds that this directed 

fishing allowance has been reached. 

Consequently, NMFS is prohibiting 

directed fishing for Pacific cod by 

vessels catching Pacific cod for 

processing by the inshore component in 

the Western Regulatory Area of the 

GOA. 

After the effective date of this closure 

the maximum retainable amounts at 

§ 679.20(e) and (f) apply at any time 

during a trip. 

Classification 

This action responds to the best 

available information recently obtained 

from the fishery. The Assistant 

Administrator for Fisheries, NOAA 

(AA), finds good cause to waive the 

requirement to provide prior notice and 

opportunity for public comment 

pursuant to the authority set forth at 5 

U.S.C. 553(b)(B) as such requirement is 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest. This requirement is 

impracticable and contrary to the public 

interest as it would prevent NMFS from 

responding to the most recent fisheries 

data in a timely fashion and would 

delay the closure of Pacific cod 

apportioned to vessels catching Pacific 

cod for processing by the inshore 

component of the Western Regulatory 

Area of the GOA. NMFS was unable to 

publish a notice providing time for 

public comment because the most 

recent, relevant data only became 

available as of March 6, 2007. 

The AA also finds good cause to 

waive the 30–day delay in the effective 

date of this action under 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3). This finding is based upon 

the reasons provided above for waiver of 

prior notice and opportunity for public 

comment. 

This action is required by § 679.20 

and is exempt from review under 

Executive Order 12866. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 


hsrobinson on PROD1PC76 with RULES