[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 7, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8412-8413]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-02508]


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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 Crab Arbitration

    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 September 19, 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 Crab Arbitration.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0516.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission (extension of a current 
information collection).
    Number of Respondents: 2.
    Average Hours per Response: Annual Arbitration Organization Report: 
6 hours; Cost Allocation Agreement: 16 hours.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 28 hours.
    Needs and Uses: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), 
Alaska Regional Office, is requesting extension of a currently approved 
information collection for the Arbitration System for the Crab 
Rationalization Program.
    The Crab Rationalization Program allocates Bering Sea and Aleutian 
Islands (BSAI) crab resources among harvesters, processors, and coastal 
communities. Under the Crab Rationalization Program, eligible License 
Limitation Program license holders were issued crab quota shares (QS), 
which are long term shares, based on their qualifying license 
histories. The QS yield annual individual fishing quota (IFQ) that is 
an exclusive harvest privilege for a portion of the total allowable 
catch. Processor quota shares (PQS) are long term shares issued to 
processors. The PQS yield annual individual processor quota (IPQ) that 
is an exclusive privilege to receive, for processing, a portion of the 
crab harvested with Class A IFQ.
    This information collection for the Arbitration System is necessary 
for NMFS to manage the Crab Rationalization Program crab fisheries in 
the BSAI. This information collection is implemented under the Crab 
Rationalization Program and required by regulations at 50 CFR 680.20. 
NMFS requires that harvesters and processors abide by an Arbitration 
System established to stabilize prices and negotiations during the crab 
harvest season. The Arbitration System is necessary to reduce 
contention in price negotiations. The information collected is 
necessary for NMFS to verify the membership of the arbitration 
organizations and maintain the Arbitration System.
    The Arbitration System was designed to fairly and equitably resolve 
price, delivery terms, performance standards, and other disputes in the 
event that IFQ and IPQ holders are unable to reach agreement on 
arbitration proceedings. The Arbitration System is also designed to 
minimize the potential for antitrust violations. The Arbitration System 
includes a provision for open negotiations among IPQ and IFQ holders, 
as well as various negotiation approaches, including a share matching 
approach, a lengthy season approach where parties may postpone binding 
arbitration until during the season, and a binding arbitration 
procedure to resolve price disputes between an IPQ holder and eligible 
IFQ holders. The Arbitration System also provides for dissemination of 
market information to facilitate negotiations, coordination of matching 
Class A IFQ held by harvesters to IPQ held by processors, and the 
opportunity to use the binding arbitration process to resolve terms of 
price and delivery. Certain aspects of the Arbitration System are 
required of catcher vessel owners who hold QS/IFQ and PQS/IPQ holders 
and operate regardless of whether participants in the fishery actually 
initiate binding arbitration in order to resolve terms of price or 
delivery.
    This information collection contains five components of the 
Arbitration System that are submitted to NMFS. Four are submitted 
annually: the Annual Arbitration Organization Report, the Market 
Report, the Non-binding Price Formula Report, and the Cost Allocation 
Agreement. The Contract Arbitrator Report is submitted if any 
arbitrations occur within a fishery.
    The Annual Arbitration Organization Report is compiled by each of 
the two arbitration organizations; one organization represents the 
processors, and the second represents the harvesters. This report 
includes information on the arbitration organization and its management 
personnel, the crab QS fisheries to which the report applies, the 
ownership interest and the QS/IFQ or PQS/IPQ held by each member; and 
the arbitration process.
    The Cost Allocation Agreement provides combined shared arbitration 
accounting costs. Federal regulations for the Crab Rationalization 
Program require that the crab arbitration costs are shared equally 
between IPQ holders and Class A IFQ holders--processors pay half and 
fishermen pay half.
    The arbitration organizations use contracted parties to meet the 
requirements of the Market Report, Nonbinding Price Formula Report, and 
Contractor Arbitrator Report.
    The Non-binding Price Formula Report is a pre-season report that is 
designed to serve as a starting point for negotiations between 
fishermen and processors, or as a starting point for an arbitrator in 
evaluating offers in an arbitration process. This report documents how 
each formula was developed.
    The Market Report provides an analysis of the market for products 
of a specific crab fishery and reports on

[[Page 8413]]

activities occurring within three months prior to its generation. The 
purpose of this report is to provide background information on each 
crab fishery, the products generated by each fishery, and position of 
those products in the marketplace; discuss the historical division of 
wholesale revenue; and provide the methods for predicting wholesale 
prices before the fishery occurs.
    The Contract Arbitrator Report documents arbitration proceedings if 
they occur within a fishery.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations.
    Frequency: Annually; As needed.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 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 0648-0516.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-02508 Filed 2-6-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P