15410 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 53 / Friday, March 18, 2022 / Notices 

for Search and Rescue, to contact the 

distressed person(s) or alternate party 

via a phone call or radio broadcast. 

Other data provides rescuers with 

descriptive material of the element in 

distress. The registration information 

must be kept up-to-date. 

Four registration forms are used. The 

EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating 

Radio Beacon) form is used for nautical 

beacons. The ELT (Emergency Locator 

Transmitter) form is used for aircraft 

beacons. The PLB (Personal Locator 

Beacon) is used to register portable 

beacons carried by individuals. Ship 

Security Alerting System (SSAS) 

beacons are carried aboard ships, are 

similar to EPIRBs and are used in the 

event of an emergency situation such as 

piracy or terrorism. 

These forms are being updated in 

response to the development of 406MHz 

second generation beacons (SGBs), 

which are in development and are 

projected to be available to the public in 

2023. Changes to the forms are as 

follows: 

23-Hex Beacon ID line: SGBs have 23- 

character hexadecimal unique 

identifiers. NOAA’s 406 MHz Beacon 

Registration Database (RGDB) currently 

allows registrations for first generation 

beacons (FGBs) that contain 15- 

character hexadecimal identifiers. Once 

SGBs are on the market, beacon owners 

will have the capability to register either 

FGBs or SGBs in the RGDB. Even 

though each registration will be for only 

one beacon ID, the hardcopy registration 

form must contain separate lines for 

FGBs and SGBs due to the differing 

number of characters and their 

presentation on manufacture labels and 

packaging—FGB IDs are presented in 

groups of 5–5–5 and SGB IDs will be 

6–6–6–5. 

Old 23-Hex ID: This field was added 

to enable registration of a replacement 

SGB beacon. The RGDB will continue to 

capture data for both FGB and SBG 

replacements. 

Beacon Serial No.: This field was 

added to capture the beacon’s serial 

number, which appears on the 

manufacturer-supplied label and/or on 

the beacon or its packaging. The serial 

number provides additional verification 

of the beacon ID and can be used by 

RGDB staff to resolve cases of incorrect 

or duplicate beacon IDs. 

Other: An Automatic Identification 

System (AIS) Maritime Mobile Service 

Identity (MMSI) number was added to 

the EPIRB form. The following fields 

were added to the PLB form to provide 

additional pertinent information to 

search and rescue (SAR) forces: Radio 

Call Sign (on EPIRB form), Vessel MMSI 

# (on EPIRB form), AIS MMSI # (just 

added to EPIRB form), and Aircraft 

Registration (Tail) No. (on ELT form). 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; Business or other for-profit 

organizations; Not-for-profit 

institutions; State, Local, or Tribal 

government; Federal government. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory. 

Legal Authority: Federal 

Communications Commission (FCC) 

regulations at 47 CFR 80.1061, 47 CFR 

87.199 and 47 CFR 95.1402. 

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 0648–0295. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2022–05792 Filed 3–17–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–HR–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XB886] 

Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative 

Management Act Provisions; General 

Provisions for Domestic Fisheries; 

Application for Exempted Fishing 

Permits 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The Assistant Regional 

Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, 

Greater Atlantic Region, NMFS, has 

made a preliminary determination that 

an Exempted Fishing Permit application 

from Pioneers for a Thoughtful 

Coexistence, Inc. contains all the 

required information and warrants 

further consideration. Regulations under 

the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 

Conservation and Management Act and 

the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries 

Cooperative Management Act require 

publication of this notice to provide 

interested parties the opportunity to 

comment on applications for proposed 

Exempted Fishing Permits. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 4, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit written 

comments by any of the following 

methods: 

• Email: NMFS.GAR.EFP@noaa.gov. 

Include in the subject line ‘‘Comments 

on Pioneers Ropeless Fishing EFP.’’ If 

you are unable to submit comments via 

the above email, please contact Laura 

Hansen at (978) 281–9225, or email at 

Laura.Hansen@noaa.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Laura Hansen, Fishery Management 

Specialist, (978) 281–9225. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pioneers 

for a Thoughtful Coexistence Inc. 

(Pionners), in collaboration with the 

Northeaster Fisheries Science Center 

(NEFSC) submitted a complete 

application for an Exempted Fishing 

Permit (EFP) on December 20, 2021, to 

conduct a ropeless lobster gear testing 

project. Pioneers is requesting an 

exemption from Federal lobster 

regulations that would authorize three 

federally permitted commercial lobster 

vessels to participate in a ropeless 

lobster gear study in the Massachusetts 

Bay Restricted Area (MBRA). Pioneers is 

requesting an exemption from gear 

marking requirements at 50 CFR 

697.21(b)(2) to allow for the use of no 

surface markers on a trawl of more than 

three traps. 

The purpose of this study is to test 

real-world use of acoustic-release 

systems that would reduce the risk of 

entangling protected species, including 

the North Atlantic right whale. 

The EFP would authorize three 

federally permitted lobster vessels to 

modify some of their existing trawls to 

use ‘‘on-demand access’’ technology for 

the retrieval of the gear. Each vessel 

would use 10 sets of acoustic releases 

and equipment to fish 10, 20-pot trawls 

each. Experimental trawls would either 

have a rope spool, a buoy and stowed 

rope system, or a lift bag system fitted 

with an acoustic release, deployed on 

one end of the trawl. One vessel would 

have 5 of the 10 trawls fixed with 

acoustic releases on both ends of the 

trawl. Two state-permitted vessels 

would also participate in the study 

exclusively in state waters of the MBRA, 

and do not require Federal EFPs. 

Participating vessels would be testing 

gear in discrete areas in the MBRA that 

were selected by the applicant based on 

their claim of limited historical right 

whale usage, desired bottom 

composition, minimal gear conflict 


jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 53 / Friday, March 18, 2022 / Notices 15411 

exposure, and history of viable fishing 

grounds. NEFSC and project 

participants have been working to 

develop and test ropeless gear 

technology since 2019. To date, there 

have been no premature releases of the 

gear. Smart Buoy technology would be 

used to send an automated electronic 

notification to an email list within 

approximately 20 minutes of surfacing 

in the event of an unintended release. 

The mail list includes the Principal 

Investigator, Lori Caron, and Eric 

Matzen, NEFSC, who would 

immediately notify enforcement and 

any on-the-water marine patrol, 

research, and/or rescue efforts. 

Positioning will be tracked in real time 

and recovery would occur as soon as 

possible. The gear would be transported 

ashore for assessment. For a map of the 

areas where sampling would occur, 

please see Figure 1. 

Soak time would be no longer than 14 

days, gear retrieval would be limited to 

daylight hours, and gear would not be 

set or retrieved when right whales are in 

close proximity, to further minimize any 

potential interactions with right whales. 

Sampling would occur from the date the 

permit is issued, through the end of the 

closure on April 30, 2022. Pioneers 

estimated that there would be 

approximately 117 hauls of the ropeless 

gear. Data would be collected with data 

sheets developed by the NEFSC to 

ensure consistency among and between 

different ropeless fishing projects. This 

project would also collect whale 

sighting data. NEFSC staff would assist 

with data recording, when available. 

The outcome of this project would be to 

inform discussions on the utility of 

ropeless gear to allow potential fishing 

access to vertical line closure areas. 

Participants would adhere to 

additional precautions to mitigate 

concerns regarding enforcement, gear 

identification and retrieval, and 

protected species interactions including: 

• Unique marking of ground lines and 

on-demand vertical lines beyond the 

regional requirements and the ondemand vertical line would be 

supervised while in the water column at 

all times; 

• Unique flag would be flown by 

participating vessels for enforcement 

recognition; 

• Weekly mandatory gear loss and 

gear conflict reporting; 

• Stored vertical lines would be 

enhanced with weak links every 40 feet 

and are designed to break at less than 

1700 lb (771 kg); 

• Participating vessels would operate 

at a 10-knot (18.5 kph) speed limit and, 

if within a 500 yard (457.2 m) buffer 

zone of a surfacing right whale, would 

immediately depart the area at a safe, 

slow speed; 

• Weekly communication with 

Massachusetts Division of Marine 

Fisheries and NEFSC on project 

activities; and, 

• Use of the Trap Tracker application 

for retrieval and set positioning of 

trawls. This information would be 

accessible to Federal, state, and 

corresponding enforcement personnel, 

as requested. 

If approved, the applicant may 

request minor modifications and 

extensions to the EFP throughout the 

year. We may grant EFP modifications 

and extensions without further notice if 

they are deemed essential to facilitate 

completion of the proposed research 

and have minimal impacts that do not 

change the scope or impact of the 

initially approved EFP request. The EFP 

would prohibit any fishing activity 

conducted outside the scope of the 

exempted fishing activities. 

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

Dated: March 15, 2022. 

Ngagne Jafnar Gueye, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. 2022–05765 Filed 3–17–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–P 

COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM 

PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR 

SEVERELY DISABLED 

Procurement List; Proposed Additions 

AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From 

People Who Are Blind or Severely 

Disabled. 

ACTION: Proposed additions to the 

Procurement List. 


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