Source: https://regulations.justia.com/regulations/fedreg/2018/12/26/2018-27872.html
Timestamp: 2019-10-13 21:10:00
Document Index: 231917519

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', '§ 660', 'art/58062865', 'art/58378422', 'art/58102817', 'art/58062865', 'art/58378422', 'art/58102817']

Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trawl Rationalization Program; 2019 Cost Recovery, 66251-66253 [2018-27872] :: National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration :: Department Of Commerce :: Regulation Tracker :: Justia
Justia Regulation Tracker Department Of Commerce National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trawl Rationalization Program; 2019 Cost Recovery, 66251-66253 [2018-27872]
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trawl Rationalization Program; 2019 Cost Recovery, 66251-66253 [2018-27872]
Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices observations, measurements, bioacoustic recordings, acoustic playbacks, marking, flipper tagging, capture, and non-invasive physiological sampling. A total of 64, 927 elephant seals will be taken annually: 3,550 handle/release takes, 500 capture/ handle/release takes, 1,575 harassment takes, 59,000 incidental disturbance takes, and two unintentional mortality takes, not to exceed five mortalities over the life of the permit. Samples from up to 300 naturally deceased elephant seals may be salvaged and imported, exported, or received annually. Nontarget species that may be incidentally disturbed include California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), and northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus). In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), an initial determination has been made that the activity proposed is categorically excluded from the requirement to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement. Concurrent with the publication of this notice in the Federal Register, NMFS is forwarding copies of the application to the Marine Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors. Dated: December 19, 2018. Julia Marie Harrison, Chief, Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service. [FR Doc. 2018–27870 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510–22–P DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RIN 0648–XG678 Pacific Fishery Management Council; Public Meeting National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. ACTION: Notice of public meeting. AGENCY: The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Ad Hoc Ecosystem Workgroup (EWG) will hold a meeting, which is open to the public. DATES: The meeting will be held Tuesday, January 15 and Wednesday, January 16, 2019. The meeting will start at 1 p.m. on January 15 and 8:30 a.m. on January 16 and will continue until 4:30 p.m. on both days. amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with NOTICES1 VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:07 Dec 21, 2018 Jkt 247001 Dr. Kit Dahl, Pacific Council; telephone: (503) 820–2422. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The purpose of the meeting is for the EWG to discuss assignments from the Pacific Council due at the March Council meeting. These include topic selection for a climate change scenario planning exercise and recommendations on changes to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan as part of the 5-year review. The EWG will also meet with the Groundfish Management Team and Highly Migratory Species Management Team to discuss climate change scenario planning topics. Although non-emergency issues not contained in the meeting agenda may be discussed, those issues may not be the subject of formal action during this meeting. Action will be restricted to those issues specifically listed in this document and any issues arising after publication of this document that require emergency action under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, provided the public has been notified of the intent to take final action to address the emergency. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Special Accommodations National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration SUMMARY: The meeting will be held at Hyatt Place Portland Airport/Cascade Station, Meeting Place 2, 9750 NE Cascades Parkway, Portland, OR 97220; phone: (503) 288–2808. Council address: Pacific Fishery Management Council, 7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 101, Portland, OR 97220. ADDRESSES: This meeting is physically accessible to people with disabilities. Requests for sign language interpretation or other auxiliary aids should be directed to Mr. Kris Kleinschmidt, (503) 820–2411, at least 10 business days prior to the meeting date. Dated: December 19, 2018. Tracey L. Thompson, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. [FR Doc. 2018–27837 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510–22–P PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 66251 DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RIN 0648–XF888 Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries Off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trawl Rationalization Program; 2019 Cost Recovery National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. ACTION: Notice; 2019 cost recovery fee percentages and mothership (MS) pricing. AGENCY: This action provides participants in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program with the 2019 fee percentages and MS pricing needed to calculate the required payments for the cost recovery fees due in 2019. For calendar year 2019, NMFS announces the following fee percentages by sector specific program: • 2.9 percent for the Shorebased Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program, • 0 percent for the MS Co-op Program, • 0 percent for the Catcher/Processer (CP) Co-op Program. For 2019, the MS pricing to be used as a proxy by the CP Co-op Program is: $0.07./lb for Pacific whiting. DATES: Applicable January 1, 2019. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Biegel, Cost Recovery Program Coordinator, (503) 231–6291, fax (503) 872–2737, email Christopher.Biegel@noaa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requires NMFS to collect fees to recover the costs directly related to the management, data collection and analysis, and enforcement directly related to and in support of a limited access privilege program (LAPP) (16 U.S.C. 1854(d)(2)), also called ‘‘cost recovery.’’ The Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program is a LAPP, implemented in 2011, and consists of three sector-specific programs: The Shorebased IFQ Program, the MS Co-op Program, and the CP Coop Program. In accordance with the MSA, and based on a recommended structure and methodology developed in coordination with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), NMFS began collecting mandatory fees of up to three percent of the ex-vessel value of SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\26DEN1.SGM 26DEN1 66252 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices groundfish from each program (Shorebased IFQ Program, MS Co-op Program, and CP Co-op Program) in 2014. NMFS collects the fees to recover the incremental costs of management, data collection and analysis, and enforcement of the Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program. Additional background can be found in the cost recovery proposed and final rules, 78 FR 7371 (February 1, 2013) and 78 FR 75268 (December 11, 2013), respectively. The details of cost recovery for the Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program are in regulation at 50 CFR 660.115 (Trawl fishery -cost recovery program), § 660.140 (Shorebased IFQ Program), § 660.150 (MS Co-op Program), and § 660.160 (CP Co-op Program). By December 31 of each year, NMFS must announce the next year’s fee percentages and the applicable MS pricing for the CP Co-op Program. NMFS calculated the 2019 fee percentages by sector using the best available information. For 2019, the fee percentages by program, taking into account the adjusted direct program costs (DPCs), are: • 2.9 percent for the Shorebased IFQ Program, • 0 percent for the MS Co-op Program, and • 0 percent for the CP Co-op Program. MS Co-Op and CP Co-Op program fee percentages are 0 percent because of the application of a credit from overpayment of cost recovery fees in prior years. To calculate the fee percentages, NMFS used the formula specified in regulation at § 660.115(b)(1), where the fee percentage by sector equals the lower of three percent or DPC for that sector divided by total ex-vessel value (V) for that sector multiplied by 100 opinion in Glacier Fish Co. LLC v. Pritzker, 832 F.3d 1113 (9th Cir. 2016), a case involving a challenge to NMFS’ authority to collect cost recovery fees from members of the CP Co-op Program and the reasonableness of NMFS’ calculation of the CP Co-op Program’s 2014 fee percentage. In response to the court decision, NMFS re-evaluated and modified the methodology used to determine the CP Co-op Program’s DPC for the 2014 fee calculation. NMFS elected to apply a similar revised methodology for all programs for 2014– 2016 to redetermine the DPC for those years and to continue to use the revised methodology for all programs going forward, including the 2017–2019 fee calculations. The redetermination resulted in overpayments of the cost recovery fee by the CP and MS Co-op Programs. NMFS adjusted the fees for these two sectors in subsequent years to account for this overpayment, as specified at § 660.115(b)(1)(i). In addition, for the 2019 fee calculation, the NMFS Northwest Fishery Science Center (NWFSC) determined that some of the observer hours attributed to the CP Co-op Program in 2017 were not incremental. Therefore, these hours were removed and used as a $1,207 credit to the 2018 CP Co-op Program DPC in the 2019 fee calculation. This credit is reflected in the NWFSC initial DPC. Based on the estimated fees received in 2018 and adjustments for overpayments by the MS and CP Co-op Programs, the adjusted DPCs for 2019 are: (Fee percentage = the lower of 3 percent or (DPC/V) × 100). ‘DPC,’ as defined in the regulations at § 660.115(b)(1)(i), are the actual incremental costs for the previous fiscal year directly related to the management, data collection and analysis, and enforcement of each program (Shorebased IFQ Program, MS Co-op Program, and CP Co-op Program). Actual incremental costs means those net costs that would not have been incurred but for the implementation of the Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program, including both increased costs for new requirements of the program and reduced costs resulting from any program efficiencies. ‘‘V’’, as specified at § 660.115(b)(1)(ii), is the total ex-vessel value, as defined at § 660.111, for each sector from the previous calendar year. The regulations define ex-vessel value slightly differently for each sector, thus NMFS uses slightly different methods to calculate ‘‘V’’ for each sector. For the Shorebased IFQ Program, NMFS used the ex-vessel value for calendar year 2017 as reported in Pacific Fisheries Information Network (PacFIN) from shorebased IFQ electronic fish tickets. For the MS Co-op Program and the CP Co-op Program, NMFS uses the average price of Pacific whiting as reported in PacFIN from the shorebased IFQ sector in 2017 and the retained catch estimates (weight) from the observer data, as reported in the North Pacific Observer Program database. NMFS does not collect pricing data for these two sectors so it uses the shorebased IFQ sector data as a proxy. Redetermination of Past DPCs and Adjustment of DPCs On August 10, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its Total by sector amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with NOTICES1 IFQ ............................................................................................................................................... MS ................................................................................................................................................ CP ................................................................................................................................................ The fee calculations using the adjusted 2018 DPCs are described below. Shorebased IFQ Program: 2.9 percent = the lower of 3 percent or ($1,753,653.57/$60,624,195.00) × 100 MS Co-op Program: ¥0.7 percent = the lower of 3 percent or (¥$73,928.46/$11,350,915.58) × 100 CP Co-op Program: ¥0.3 percent = the lower of 3 percent or (¥$69,385.25/$24,656,732.10) × 100. VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:07 Dec 21, 2018 Jkt 247001 The 2019 fee percentages for the MS and CP Co-op Programs will be set at 0.0 percent to reflect the application of a credit from overpayment of cost recovery fees in prior years. MS pricing is the average price per pound that the CP Co-op Program will use to determine their fee amount due (MS pricing multiplied by the value of the Pacific whiting harvested by the vessel registered to a CP-endorsed limited entry trawl permit, multiplied by the CP fee percentage, equals the fee PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 $1,753,653.57 71,400.39 47,178.23 2017 Fee adjustment $0.00 ¥145,328.85 ¥116,563.48 Final sector totals $1,753,653.57 ¥73,928.46 ¥69,385.25 amount due). MS pricing is based on the average price per pound of Pacific whiting as reported in PacFIN from the shorebased IFQ sector. In other words, data from the IFQ fishery was used as a proxy for the MS average price per pound to determine the MS pricing used in the calculation for the CP Co-op Program’s fee amount due. NMFS has calculated the 2019 MS pricing to be used as a proxy by the CP Co-op Program as: $0.07/lb for Pacific whiting. E:\FR\FM\26DEN1.SGM 26DEN1 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Notices Cost recovery fees are submitted to NMFS by Fish buyers via Pay.gov (https://www.pay.gov/paygov/). Fees are only accepted in Pay.gov by credit/debit card or bank transfers. Cash or checks cannot be accepted. Fish buyers registered with Pay.gov can login in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Fish buyers not registered with Pay.gov can go to the cost recovery forms directly from the website below. The links to the pay.gov forms for each program (IFQ, MS, or CP) are listed below: IFQ: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/ start/58062865 MS: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/ start/58378422 CP: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/ start/58102817 As stated in the preamble to the cost recovery proposed and final rules, in the spring of each year, NMFS will release an annual report documenting the details and data used for the above calculations. The report includes information such as the fee percentage calculation, program costs, and exvessel value by sector. The 2017–2018 annual report was delayed until November 2018 to allow for changes to the report following discussions with members of industry. Annual reports are available at: http://www.westcoast.fish eries.noaa.gov/fisheries/groundfish_ catch_shares/rules_regulations/ costrecovery.html. amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with NOTICES1 Corrections to the 2018 Cost Recovery Fee Calculations Between the publication of the 2018 cost recovery fees in the Federal Register (82 FR 61752) and the presentation of the 2017–2018 Cost Recovery Annual Report to the Council, NMFS identified two costs (totaling $163,614.41) that had been included in the 2017 IFQ DPCs that were not recoverable. This does not affect the 2019 fees, and a description of these costs is included below as an explanation. While reviewing the DPCs for the 2018 cost recovery fee, NMFS identified a total of $163,614.41 in costs that were not recoverable and, therefore, removed that amount from the fee calculations. Part of that total consisted of a contracting cost of $74,480.64, which NMFS removed because these contracting costs were to fund a database that supports both catch share and non-catch share data and is not considered incremental. The remainder, i.e., $89,133.77, was associated with a task code that staff used on their timesheet intended for cost recovery for non-recoverable tasks, and NMFS also VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:07 Dec 21, 2018 Jkt 247001 removed that cost. Both of these costs were only associated with the Shorebased IFQ Program and their removal did not affect the 2018 fee percentage for that program because the IFQ DPC remained above the three percent cap. IFQ DPC adjustment from the Federal Register notice announcing the 2018 cost recovery fees $2,179,402.10—Original 2017 IFQ DPC ¥$163,614.41—Adjustment to the 2017 IFQ DPC $2,015,787.69—Adjusted 2017 IFQ DPC Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 16 U.S.C.773 et seq., and 16 U.S.C. 7001 et seq. Dated: December 19, 2018. Karen H. Abrams, Acting Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. [FR Doc. 2018–27872 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3510–22–P DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Department of the Army [Docket ID: USA–2018–HQ–0022] Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request U.S. Army Public Health Center, DoD ACTION: 30-day information collection notice. AGENCY: The Department of Defense has submitted to OMB for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act. DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by January 25, 2019. ADDRESSES: Comments and recommendations on the proposed information collection should be emailed to Ms. Jasmeet Seehra, DoD Desk Officer, at oira_submission@ omb.eop.gov. Please identify the proposed information collection by DoD Desk Officer, Docket ID number, and title of the information collection. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Fred Licari, 571–372–0493, or whs.mcalex.esd.mbx.dd-dod-informationcollections@mail.mil. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: Application for Temporary Food Establishment; DD Form 2970; OMB Control Number 0702–0132. Type of Request: Extension. Number of Respondents: 91. Responses per Respondent: 1. Annual Responses: 91. Average Burden per Response: 15 minutes. SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 9990 66253 Annual Burden Hours: 23. Needs and Uses: The information collection requirement is necessary for the installation Preventive Medicine or Public Health Activity to evaluate a food vendor’s ability to prepare and dispense safe food on the installation. The form, submitted one time by a food vendor requesting to operate a food establishment on a military installation, characterizes the types of foods, daily volume of food, supporting food equipment, and sanitary controls. Approval to operate the food establishment is determined by the installation’s medical authority; the Preventive Medicine or Public Health Activity conducts an operational assessment based on the food safety criteria prescribed in the Tri-Service Food Code (TB MED 530/NAVMED P– 5010–1/AFMAN 48–147_IP). Food vendors who are deemed inadequately prepared to provide safe food service are disapproved for operating on the installation. Affected Public: Business or other forprofit; Not-for-profit institutions. Frequency: On occasion. Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. OMB Desk Officer: Ms. Jasmeet Seehra. You may also submit comments and recommendations, identified by Docket ID number and title, by the following method: • Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name, Docket ID number, and title for this Federal Register document. The general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the internet at http:// www.regulations.gov as they are received without change, including any personal identifiers or contact information. DOD Clearance Officer: Mr. Frederick Licari. Requests for copies of the information collection proposal should be sent to Mr. Licari at whs.mc-alex.esd.mbx.dddod-information-collections@mail.mil. Dated: December 14, 2018. Aaron T. Siegel, Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense. [FR Doc. 2018–27476 Filed 12–24–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 5001–06–P E:\FR\FM\26DEN1.SGM 26DEN1
[Pages 66251-66253]
[FR Doc No: 2018-27872]
RIN 0648-XF888
Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Trawl Rationalization Program; 2019
ACTION: Notice; 2019 cost recovery fee percentages and mothership (MS)
SUMMARY: This action provides participants in the Pacific Coast
Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program with the 2019 fee percentages
and MS pricing needed to calculate the required payments for the cost
recovery fees due in 2019.
For calendar year 2019, NMFS announces the following fee
percentages by sector specific program:
2.9 percent for the Shorebased Individual Fishing Quota
(IFQ) Program,
For 2019, the MS pricing to be used as a proxy by the CP Co-op
Program is: $0.07./lb for Pacific whiting.
DATES: Applicable January 1, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Biegel, Cost Recovery
Program Coordinator, (503) 231-6291, fax (503) 872-2737, email
Christopher.Biegel@noaa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Magnuson[hyphen]Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requires NMFS to collect fees to
recover the costs directly related to the management, data collection
and analysis, and enforcement directly related to and in support of a
limited access privilege program (LAPP) (16 U.S.C. 1854(d)(2)), also
called ``cost recovery.'' The Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl
Rationalization Program is a LAPP, implemented in 2011, and consists of
three sector-specific programs: The Shorebased IFQ Program, the MS Co-
op Program, and the CP Co-op Program. In accordance with the MSA, and
based on a recommended structure and methodology developed in
coordination with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council),
NMFS began collecting mandatory fees of up to three percent of the
ex[hyphen]vessel value of
[[Page 66252]]
groundfish from each program (Shorebased IFQ Program, MS Co-op Program,
and CP Co-op Program) in 2014. NMFS collects the fees to recover the
incremental costs of management, data collection and analysis, and
enforcement of the Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program. Additional
background can be found in the cost recovery proposed and final rules,
78 FR 7371 (February 1, 2013) and 78 FR 75268 (December 11, 2013),
respectively. The details of cost recovery for the Groundfish Trawl
Rationalization Program are in regulation at 50 CFR 660.115 (Trawl
fishery -cost recovery program), Sec.  660.140 (Shorebased IFQ
Program), Sec.  660.150 (MS Co-op Program), and Sec.  660.160 (CP Co-op
By December 31 of each year, NMFS must announce the next year's fee
percentages and the applicable MS pricing for the CP Co-op Program.
NMFS calculated the 2019 fee percentages by sector using the best
available information. For 2019, the fee percentages by program, taking
into account the adjusted direct program costs (DPCs), are:
MS Co-Op and CP Co-Op program fee percentages are 0 percent because of
the application of a credit from overpayment of cost recovery fees in
To calculate the fee percentages, NMFS used the formula specified
in regulation at Sec.  660.115(b)(1), where the fee percentage by
sector equals the lower of three percent or DPC for that sector divided
by total ex-vessel value (V) for that sector multiplied by 100 (Fee
percentage = the lower of 3 percent or (DPC/V) x 100).
`DPC,' as defined in the regulations at Sec.  660.115(b)(1)(i), are
the actual incremental costs for the previous fiscal year directly
related to the management, data collection and analysis, and
enforcement of each program (Shorebased IFQ Program, MS Co-op Program,
and CP Co-op Program). Actual incremental costs means those net costs
that would not have been incurred but for the implementation of the
Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program, including both increased
costs for new requirements of the program and reduced costs resulting
from any program efficiencies.
``V'', as specified at Sec.  660.115(b)(1)(ii), is the total ex-
vessel value, as defined at Sec.  660.111, for each sector from the
previous calendar year. The regulations define ex-vessel value slightly
differently for each sector, thus NMFS uses slightly different methods
to calculate ``V'' for each sector. For the Shorebased IFQ Program,
NMFS used the ex-vessel value for calendar year 2017 as reported in
Pacific Fisheries Information Network (PacFIN) from shorebased IFQ
electronic fish tickets. For the MS Co-op Program and the CP Co-op
Program, NMFS uses the average price of Pacific whiting as reported in
PacFIN from the shorebased IFQ sector in 2017 and the retained catch
estimates (weight) from the observer data, as reported in the North
Pacific Observer Program database. NMFS does not collect pricing data
for these two sectors so it uses the shorebased IFQ sector data as a
On August 10, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
issued its opinion in Glacier Fish Co. LLC v. Pritzker, 832 F.3d 1113
(9th Cir. 2016), a case involving a challenge to NMFS' authority to
collect cost recovery fees from members of the CP Co-op Program and the
reasonableness of NMFS' calculation of the CP Co-op Program's 2014 fee
percentage. In response to the court decision, NMFS re-evaluated and
modified the methodology used to determine the CP Co-op Program's DPC
for the 2014 fee calculation. NMFS elected to apply a similar revised
methodology for all programs for 2014-2016 to redetermine the DPC for
those years and to continue to use the revised methodology for all
programs going forward, including the 2017-2019 fee calculations.
The redetermination resulted in overpayments of the cost recovery
fee by the CP and MS Co-op Programs. NMFS adjusted the fees for these
two sectors in subsequent years to account for this overpayment, as
specified at Sec.  660.115(b)(1)(i).
In addition, for the 2019 fee calculation, the NMFS Northwest
Fishery Science Center (NWFSC) determined that some of the observer
hours attributed to the CP Co-op Program in 2017 were not incremental.
Therefore, these hours were removed and used as a $1,207 credit to the
2018 CP Co-op Program DPC in the 2019 fee calculation. This credit is
reflected in the NWFSC initial DPC.
Based on the estimated fees received in 2018 and adjustments for
overpayments by the MS and CP Co-op Programs, the adjusted DPCs for
2019 are:
Total by        2017 Fee      Final sector
sector        adjustment        totals
IFQ.............................................................   $1,753,653.57           $0.00   $1,753,653.57
MS..............................................................       71,400.39     -145,328.85      -73,928.46
CP..............................................................       47,178.23     -116,563.48      -69,385.25
The fee calculations using the adjusted 2018 DPCs are described
2.9 percent = the lower of 3 percent or ($1,753,653.57/
$60,624,195.00) x 100
-0.7 percent = the lower of 3 percent or (-$73,928.46/
$11,350,915.58) x 100
-0.3 percent = the lower of 3 percent or (-$69,385.25/
$24,656,732.10) x 100.
The 2019 fee percentages for the MS and CP Co-op Programs will be
set at 0.0 percent to reflect the application of a credit from
overpayment of cost recovery fees in prior years.
MS pricing is the average price per pound that the CP Co-op Program
will use to determine their fee amount due (MS pricing multiplied by
the value of the Pacific whiting harvested by the vessel registered to
a CP-endorsed limited entry trawl permit, multiplied by the CP fee
percentage, equals the fee amount due). MS pricing is based on the
average price per pound of Pacific whiting as reported in PacFIN from
the shorebased IFQ sector. In other words, data from the IFQ fishery
was used as a proxy for the MS average price per pound to determine the
MS pricing used in the calculation for the CP Co-op Program's fee
amount due. NMFS has calculated the 2019 MS pricing to be used as a
proxy by the CP Co-op Program as: $0.07/lb for Pacific whiting.
[[Page 66253]]
Cost recovery fees are submitted to NMFS by Fish buyers via Pay.gov
(https://www.pay.gov/paygov/). Fees are only accepted in Pay.gov by
credit/debit card or bank transfers. Cash or checks cannot be accepted.
Fish buyers registered with Pay.gov can login in the upper left-hand
corner of the screen. Fish buyers not registered with Pay.gov can go to
the cost recovery forms directly from the website below. The links to
the pay.gov forms for each program (IFQ, MS, or CP) are listed below:
IFQ: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/58062865
MS: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/58378422
CP: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/58102817
As stated in the preamble to the cost recovery proposed and final
rules, in the spring of each year, NMFS will release an annual report
documenting the details and data used for the above calculations. The
report includes information such as the fee percentage calculation,
program costs, and ex-vessel value by sector. The 2017-2018 annual
report was delayed until November 2018 to allow for changes to the
report following discussions with members of industry. Annual reports
are available at: http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/fisheries/groundfish_catch_shares/rules_regulations/costrecovery.html.
Between the publication of the 2018 cost recovery fees in the
Federal Register (82 FR 61752) and the presentation of the 2017-2018
Cost Recovery Annual Report to the Council, NMFS identified two costs
(totaling $163,614.41) that had been included in the 2017 IFQ DPCs that
were not recoverable. This does not affect the 2019 fees, and a
description of these costs is included below as an explanation.
While reviewing the DPCs for the 2018 cost recovery fee, NMFS
identified a total of $163,614.41 in costs that were not recoverable
and, therefore, removed that amount from the fee calculations. Part of
that total consisted of a contracting cost of $74,480.64, which NMFS
removed because these contracting costs were to fund a database that
supports both catch share and non-catch share data and is not
considered incremental. The remainder, i.e., $89,133.77, was associated
with a task code that staff used on their timesheet intended for cost
recovery for non-recoverable tasks, and NMFS also removed that cost.
Both of these costs were only associated with the Shorebased IFQ
Program and their removal did not affect the 2018 fee percentage for
that program because the IFQ DPC remained above the three percent cap.
IFQ DPC adjustment from the Federal Register notice announcing the
2018 cost recovery fees
$2,179,402.10--Original 2017 IFQ DPC
-$163,614.41--Adjustment to the 2017 IFQ DPC
$2,015,787.69--Adjusted 2017 IFQ DPC
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., 16 U.S.C.773 et seq., and 16