23236 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 89 / Tuesday, May 8, 2001 / Notices

Dated: May1, 2001.

Madeleine Clayton,

Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer,

Office of the Chief Information Officer.

[FR Doc. 01–11551 Filed 5–7–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

[I.D. 050301E]

Individual Fishing Quotas Program for

Pacific Halibut and Sablefish in the

Alaska Fisheries

AGENCY: National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

ACTION: Proposed information

collection; comment request.

SUMMARY: The Department of

Commerce, as part of its continuing

effort to reduce paperwork and

respondent burden, invites the general

public and other Federal agencies to

take this opportunity to comment on

proposed and/or continuing information

collections, as required by the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Pub.

L. 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

DATES: Written comments must be

submitted on or before July 9, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments

to Madeleine Clayton, Departmental

Paperwork Clearance Officer,

Department of Commerce, Room 6086,

14th and Constitution Avenue NW,

Washington DC 20230 (or via Internet at

MClayton@doc.gov).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or

copies of the information collection

instrument(s) and instructions should

be directed to Patsy A. Bearden, F/

AKR2, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK

99802–1668 (telephone 907–586–7008).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

NMFS manages the Pacific halibut

and sablefish fisheries in Alaska

through an Individual Fishery Quota

program (IFQ) that allocates annual total

catch limits to individual fishermen.

Fishermen are assigned Quota Shares

(QS)for the fisheries, and then annually

received an IFQ. As part of its

management program, NMFS monitors

the IFQs assigned to vessel categories B,

C, or D by corporations and

partnerships.

To ensure that corporations and

partnerships are not erroneously issued

annual IFQ resulting from the

collectively-held QS, NMFS seeks to

add a requirement that each corporation

or partnership annually identify all

current shareholders or partners and

affirm the entity’s continuing existence

as a corporation or partnership.

NMFS’ Restricted Access

Management program (RAM) requires

annual updates on the status of

corporations, partnerships, and other

collective entities holding QS for two

reasons. First, the IFQ regulations

require that collective entities holding

QS transfer the collectively-held QS to

a qualified individual upon any change

in the corporation, partnership, or other

collective entity, and the regulations

define such a change as the addition of

a shareholder, partner, or member to the

collective entity. This requirement is

intended to promote an owner-operated

fishery and to prevent the accumulation

of QS by speculative investors. To

monitor collectively-held QS

adequately, RAM needs the annual

updates on the status of collective

entities that this collection of

information would provide to ensure a

collective entity’s continuing existence

as such.

Also, the IFQ Program requires that

the QS holder be aboard the vessel

harvesting the QS holder’s annual IFQ.

Under certain conditions, however, an

individual QS holder may hire a skipper

to fish the QS holder’s IFQ. One such

condition is that the QS holder own the

vessel from which the hired skipper

harvests the IFQ. Since the inception of

the IFQ Program in 1995, NMFS’s policy

has interpreted vessel ownership

liberally to allow an individual QS

holder who meets all other conditions to

hire a skipper to fish his or her IFQ from

a vessel owned by a corporation,

partnership, or other collective entity in

which the individual QS holder is a

shareholder, partner, or member.

Likewise, collective entities holding QS

may hire skippers to fish the

collectively-held IFQ from a vessel

owned by a member of the collective.

This arrangement is known informally

as ‘‘indirect ownership.’’ Hence, to

ensure that individuals and collective

entities claiming indirect vessel

ownership for purposes of hiring

skippers are in fact linked to the entity

owning the vessel, RAM needs the

annual updates on the status of

collective entities to monitor ‘‘indirect’’

ownership.

II. Method of Collection

The information is submitted to

respond to requirements set forth in a

regulation.

III. Data

OMB Number: None.

Form Number: None.

Type of Review: Regular submission.

Affected Public: Not-for-profit

institutions, business and other forprofit organizations.

Estimated Number of Respondents:

50.

Estimated Time Per Response: 30

minutes.

Estimated Total Annual Burden

Hours: 25.

Estimated Total Annual Cost to

Public: $50.

IV. Request for Comments

Comments are invited on: (a) whether

the proposed collection of information

is necessary for the proper performance

of the functions of the agency, including

whether the information shall have

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the

agency’s estimate of the burden

(including hours and cost) of the

proposed collection of information; (c)

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and

clarity of the information to be

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the

burden of the collection of information

on respondents, including through the

use of automated collection techniques

or other forms of information

technology.

Comments submitted in response to

this notice will be summarized and/or

included in the request for OMB

approval of this information collection;

they also will become a matter of public

record.

Dated: May1, 2001.

Madeleine Clayton,

Departmental Paperwork Clearance Officer,

Office of the Chief Information Officer.

[FR Doc. 01–11552 Filed 5–7–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

[I.D. 050301F]

Gear-Marking Requirements for the

Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan

AGENCY: National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

ACTION: Proposed information

collection; comment request.

SUMMARY: The Department of

Commerce, as part of its continuing

effort to reduce paperwork and

respondent burden, invites the general

public and other Federal agencies to

take this opportunity to comment on

proposed and/or continuing information

collections, as required by the