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Proposed Rule2024-19892

Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Electronic Reporting Requirements

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Published

September 6, 2024

Issuing agencies

Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Abstract

NMFS is proposing to modify and/or expand reporting requirements for Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS), including reporting by commercial, for-hire, and private recreational vessel owners and dealers. This proposed action would require vessel owners, who currently report in existing paper commercial logbooks (i.e., Atlantic HMS logbook and the Southeast Coastal Fisheries Logbook Program), to report electronically. NMFS is also proposing to implement new logbook requirements for vessel owners holding HMS Charter/Headboat permits or Atlantic Tunas General category permits, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permits, and/or Swordfish General Commercial permits. This proposed action would modify reporting options for private recreational vessel owners holding HMS Angling permits. Additionally, HMS dealers would be required to report individual fish weights for additional species (i.e., Atlantic bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack (BAYS) tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks). All HMS reporting would become electronic, using systems or applications approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS. Finally, this proposed action would make technical changes to clarify certain HMS regulations.

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 173 (Friday, September 6, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 173 (Friday, September 6, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 72796-72819]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19892]

[[Page 72796]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 635

[Docket No. 240829-0229]
RIN 0648-BM23

Atlantic Highly Migratory Species; Electronic Reporting
Requirements

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS is proposing to modify and/or expand reporting
requirements for Atlantic highly migratory species (HMS), including
reporting by commercial, for-hire, and private recreational vessel
owners and dealers. This proposed action would require vessel owners,
who currently report in existing paper commercial logbooks (i.e.,
Atlantic HMS logbook and the Southeast Coastal Fisheries Logbook
Program), to report electronically. NMFS is also proposing to implement
new logbook requirements for vessel owners holding HMS Charter/Headboat
permits or Atlantic Tunas General category permits, Atlantic Tunas
Harpoon category permits, and/or Swordfish General Commercial permits.
This proposed action would modify reporting options for private
recreational vessel owners holding HMS Angling permits. Additionally,
HMS dealers would be required to report individual fish weights for
additional species (i.e., Atlantic bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and
skipjack (BAYS) tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks). All HMS
reporting would become electronic, using systems or applications
approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS. Finally, this proposed action would
make technical changes to clarify certain HMS regulations.

DATES: Written comments must be received by January 6, 2025. Three
public webinars will be held on the dates listed in table 1 of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

ADDRESSES: A plain language summary of this proposed rule is available
at: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047</a>. You may
submit comments on this document, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047, by
electronic submission. Submit all electronic public comments via the
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Visit <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and type
NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047 in the Search box. Click on the ``Comment'' icon,
complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other
address or individual, or received after the end of the comment period,
may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part of the
public record and will generally be posted for public viewing at:
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> without change. All personal identifying
information (e.g., name, address, etc.), confidential business
information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily
by the sender will be publicly accessible. NMFS will accept anonymous
comments (enter ``N/A'' in the required fields if you wish to remain
anonymous).
Written comments regarding the burden-hour estimates or other
aspects of the collection-of-information requirements contained in this
proposed rule may be submitted at: <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Find this particular information collection by selecting
``Currently under Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the
search function.
Copies of the supporting documents, including the Regulatory Impact
Review (RIR) and Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) for
this action, the advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on HMS
electronic reporting requirements, and the 2006 Consolidated HMS
Fishery Management Plan (FMP) and amendments are available from the HMS
website at: <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/atlantic-highly-migratory-species">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/atlantic-highly-migratory-species</a> or by contacting Carrie Soltanoff at the email
address or telephone number below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carrie Soltanoff
(<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6f0c0e1d1d060a411c00031b0e010009092f01000e0e41080019">[email&#160;protected]</a>), Guy DuBeck (<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#86e1f3ffa8e2f3e4e3e5edc6e8e9e7e7a8e1e9f0">[email&#160;protected]</a>), or Ann
Williamson (<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bcddd2d292cbd5d0d0d5ddd1cfd3d2fcd2d3dddd92dbd3ca">[email&#160;protected]</a>) by email, or by phone at 301-427-
8503.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Atlantic HMS fisheries (i.e., tunas,
billfish, swordfish, and sharks) are managed under the 2006
Consolidated HMS FMP and its amendments pursuant to the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act)
(16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) and consistent with the Atlantic Tunas
Convention Act (ATCA) (16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.). HMS implementing
regulations are at 50 CFR part 635. The regulations specific to HMS
reporting can be found at Sec. 635.5. The Magnuson-Stevens Act, among
other things, requires FMPs to specify the data which shall be
submitted to the Secretary with respect to commercial, recreational,
and charter fishing (16 U.S.C. 1853(a)(5)), thus authorizing the
collection of such data. In addition, the Magnuson-Stevens Act
authorizes NMFS to require permits and ``such other measures,
requirements, or conditions and restrictions as are determined to be
necessary and appropriate for the conservation and management of the
fishery'' (16 U.S.C. 1853(b)(1), (14)).
The purpose of this rulemaking is to: (1) streamline and modernize
reporting through electronic reporting and consolidation of reporting
deadlines, including converting existing commercial paper logbooks to
electronic logbooks; (2) expand electronic logbook reporting to
additional commercial and charter/headboat vessel owners; and (3)
collect additional information from dealers through existing electronic
reporting mechanisms. The expansion of reporting requirements would
create consistency with NMFS efforts in other fisheries and augment
data necessary for fishery science and management. Electronic logbook
reporting is a step towards streamlining HMS reporting for commercial,
for-hire, and private recreational fisheries consistent with the ``One
Stop Reporting'' initiative for HMS, Greater Atlantic Region, and
Southeast Region fisheries. The intent of the ``One Stop Reporting''
initiative is to expand capabilities for the submission of a single
electronic report to satisfy overlapping reporting requirements of
vessels holding permits in multiple regions. The need for each action
is described in more detail below, under the following topics and
respective alternatives: A. Electronic Logbook for HMS Commercial
Limited Access Permits; B. Electronic Logbook for Atlantic Tunas
General Category Permit, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon Category Permit,
Swordfish General Commercial Permit, and HMS Charter/Headboat Permit;
C. HMS Angling Permit Reporting Requirements; and D. HMS Dealer
Reporting: Individual Fish Reports and Technical Change in Bluefin Tuna
Reporting Requirements.
Implementation of the measures proposed in this rulemaking is
contingent on available funding. Implementation of some or all aspects
of the preferred alternatives may be delayed pending funding
availability and any needed development of, or changes to, electronic
reporting systems/applications. In addition to comments on the
alternatives themselves, should delayed implementation be necessary,
NMFS is requesting comments on which

[[Page 72797]]

alternatives the public feels are most important.
NMFS is proposing to clarify in this rulemaking that the owner of a
vessel with an HMS permit is ultimately responsible for ensuring that
all reports are submitted in a timely and accurate manner. NMFS is
aware that currently vessel operators and owners complete reporting
obligations according to each vessel's business practices. The proposed
regulations make clear that even though commercial and for-hire vessel
owners may allow the vessel operator or another person to submit all
required reports, the onus and responsibility is on the vessel owner.
However, because both owners and operators may submit reports, the
description of proposed measures and other alternatives in this
preamble refer to vessel ``owners/operators.''
NMFS published an ANPRM on May 12, 2023 (88 FR 30699) that
described the reporting topics addressed in this rulemaking and
provided management options. NMFS presented the ANPRM to the HMS
Advisory Panel, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and
the New England, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and
Caribbean Fishery Management Councils, and held five in-person and two
virtual public hearings. The ANPRM comment period ended August 18,
2023. Written comments submitted on the ANPRM can be viewed at: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAA-NMFS-2023-0047</a>. NMFS considered all
the comments received in the development of this proposed rule.
As described in more detail below, the preferred alternatives and
sub-alternatives in this action are:

A. Electronic Logbook for HMS Commercial Limited Access Permits

<bullet> Alternative A1. Format for submission of logbooks and
associated weighout slips.
[cir] Sub-alternative A1b. Vessel owners/operators would complete
and submit logbook entries electronically; submit an uploaded file of
the weighout slip with logbook submission. NMFS would offer a voluntary
standardized weighout slip form.
<bullet> Alternative A2. Timing requirement for logbook submission.
[cir] Sub-alternative A2b. Vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit logbook entries within 7 days of offloading all HMS,
including the cost-earnings portion of the logbook for selected vessel
owners.

B. Electronic Logbook for Atlantic Tunas General Category Permit,
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon Category Permit, Swordfish General Commercial
Permit, and HMS Charter/Headboat Permit

<bullet> Alternative B1. Electronic logbook requirements.
[cir] Sub-alternative B1c. NMFS would expand species and trip
reporting requirements via electronic logbook for vessels with Atlantic
Tunas General category, Harpoon category, Swordfish General Commercial,
and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permits. Vessel owners would report through
an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS
reporting.
[ssquf] Require electronic logbook submission for all trips,
regardless of whether fish are caught.
[ssquf] Require reporting of all species caught, including non-HMS
[ssquf] Collect fishing location information.
[ssquf] Require monthly no-fishing reports.
<bullet> Alternative B2. Timing requirement for electronic logbook
submission.
[cir] Sub-alternative B2a. Vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit completed electronic logbook reports within 24 hours
of the end of the trip.
<bullet> Alternative B3. Cost and earnings information.
[cir] Sub-alternative B3c. All vessel owners/operators would submit
some cost and earnings information for each trip in the electronic
logbook, and vessel owners selected by NMFS for a given calendar year
would submit additional cost and earnings information via annual
survey.

C. HMS Angling Permit Reporting Requirements

<bullet> Alternative C2. The same as the status quo with the
exception of removing the option to report via telephone.

D. HMS Dealer Reporting: Individual Fish Weights on Dealer Reports and
Technical Change in Bluefin Tuna Reporting Requirements

<bullet> Alternative D2. Expand individual fish weights that
dealers would be required to report to: bigeye, albacore, yellowfin,
and skipjack tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks.
<bullet> Alternative D4. Would remove the requirement to submit a
bi-weekly report for bluefin tuna.

A. Electronic Logbook for HMS Commercial Limited Access Permits

Background

Owners/operators of vessels with HMS commercial limited access
permits (i.e., Atlantic Tunas Longline category, shark directed, shark
incidental, swordfish directed, swordfish incidental, and swordfish
handgear) are all currently selected for logbook reporting under Sec.
635.5(a)(1) and thus are required to report their fishing activities in
a paper logbook. Logbooks require information on the gear used, the
date(s) a fishing trip occurred, the quantity of fish caught, and the
fishing location. Because commercial vessel owners/operators report
these data themselves, it is referred to as ``self-reported'' data.
Different logbooks are required for the different fisheries and their
use depends on the data collection needs and requirements of the
different fisheries. The current logbooks (i.e., Atlantic HMS logbook
and Southeast Coastal Fisheries Logbook Program) are described below.
Owners/operators of HMS permitted vessels using pelagic longline
gear are required to use the Atlantic HMS logbook, and HMS vessel
owners who are selected to report and who use other gear types,
including rod and reel, green-stick, and bottom longline gear, may also
report fishing activities in this logbook (or in the Southeast Coastal
Fisheries Logbook Program described below). The vessels using the
Atlantic HMS logbook primarily target swordfish and tunas.
There are currently three forms that must be submitted for an
Atlantic HMS logbook report to be complete: (1) the trip report form;
(2) the set report form; and (3) the weighout slips (i.e., tally
sheets), which report individual dressed weights for all fish sold. The
trip report form provides information on the trip itself (e.g., the
start and end dates, the vessel name and identification number, which
dealers purchased landings, and port information). Economic
information, such as the total cost of trip expenses (e.g., groceries,
fuel), is also collected on the cost-earnings portion of this form from
those vessel owners who are randomly selected on an annual basis under
Sec. 635.5(a)(1) (20 percent of the fleet). The set report form
provides information on an individual fishing set, including the
specific latitude and longitude coordinates at which gear was set and
hauled back, the amount of gear used, and the number and species of
fish kept, released alive, and discarded dead, and interactions with
protected species. Each logbook submission includes only one trip form
but may include numerous set report forms. The weighout slips (50 CFR
635.5(a)(2)) record the individual carcass weights of fish purchased by
each individual dealer. These weighout slips containing information on
weights of fish purchased are typically generated by the

[[Page 72798]]

dealer and provided to the vessel owner/operator, but some vessel
owner/operators also create these slips. If no fishing trips occurred
during a given month, the No Fishing Reporting Form is required. The No
Fishing Reporting Form confirms that vessel owners/operators are not
fishing, as opposed to not reporting.
The Southeast Coastal Fisheries Logbook Program (Coastal Fisheries
logbook) is also used to collect HMS landings information. It is
primarily used by vessel owners/operators with commercial shark permits
who do not use pelagic longline gear and by vessel owners/operators
with permits in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions to report
fishing activity in the Gulf of Mexico reef fish, South Atlantic
snapper/grouper, coastal migratory pelagic fish (i.e., king and Spanish
mackerel and cobia), shark, and Atlantic dolphin/wahoo fisheries. The
Coastal Fisheries logbook is primarily used for bottom longline,
gillnet, and vertical line (including bandit) gear, but other gear
types can also be reported here. The Coastal Fisheries logbook has only
a trip report form, and if selected, vessel owners/operators have to
complete a trip expense section on the trip report form and/or a
separate discard form, as described below. Vessel owners/operators are
also required to indicate if they have not fished for a given month by
submitting a No Fishing Reporting Form.
The Coastal Fisheries logbook trip report form includes information
specific to the trip, such as vessel name and identification number and
dates of the trip. Unlike the reporting forms in the Atlantic HMS
logbook, the Coastal Fisheries logbook collects information on the
gear, location, and species encountered for an entire trip rather than
on every set of the fishing trip. Gear effort information (e.g., number
of hooks, lines fished, length of longline) are reported as either
totals or the average for an entire trip, rather than the specific
number of hooks or length of line for each set. Vessel owners/operators
also indicate their fishing area as a four digit code, in accordance
with a statistical grid map, to indicate where the majority of each
species was caught. The grid numbers follow lines of latitude and
longitude. The ``species kept'' is also reported in total weight for
the entire trip, not in numbers of fish per set like for the Atlantic
HMS logbook. Economic information, such as the total cost of groceries
and fuel, is collected on this form and is required for each trip from
a group of vessel owners/operators representing 20 percent of the
active fleet randomly selected annually.
Unlike the Atlantic HMS logbook, the trip form does not record
information on released or discarded fish or protected species;
however, vessel owners/operators can write in these observations if
desired. A separate discard logbook form, specifically for the
recording of released or discarded fish and protected species, is
required for approximately 20 percent of those vessel owners/operators,
selected at random each year. This discard form is also trip based and
does not have specific location data available for each set.
Additionally, this logbook form does not provide specific information
on individual fish that are discarded dead or alive but instead are
collected as a summary for the entire trip. For each species reported
on the discard form, vessel owners/operators are required to report the
following: whether all the fish were discarded dead, most were
discarded dead, all were discarded alive, most were discarded alive,
some were kept but not sold (e.g., if they used the fish as bait), or
the owner/operator was unable to determine which category to check.
Vessel owners/operators may also report ``no discards,'' indicating
that no individuals of any species were discarded during the fishing
trip, when submitting a discard logbook form.
Both the Atlantic HMS logbook and the Coastal Fisheries logbook are
administered by the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and
have historically required submission of paper forms. NMFS is currently
working on creating an electronic reporting system to replace the paper
logbooks, with the working title of the SEFSC Commercial Electronic
Logbook. It is expected that, once the electronic logbook system is
fully developed and implemented, electronic logbook submission would
replace paper submission. One or more electronic reporting applications
would be available to vessel owners/operators to transmit the required
information to the SEFSC Commercial Electronic Logbook. Electronic
logbook reporting would also allow for the submission of a single
electronic report that could be used to satisfy overlapping reporting
requirements of vessels holding permits in multiple regions, as part of
the NMFS ``One Stop Reporting'' initiative. The South Atlantic Fishery
Management Council and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
together with the NMFS Southeast Regional Office (SERO) have developed
a joint FMP amendment that would maintain the reporting requirements
for commercial vessels through the Coastal Fisheries logbook but
require electronic submission of reports using available software. The
joint FMP amendment has been submitted to NMFS for review and action.
More information on the joint FMP amendment affecting the Coastal
Fisheries logbook can be found at: <a href="https://safmc.net/amendments/dolphin-wahoo-amendment-4/">https://safmc.net/amendments/dolphin-wahoo-amendment-4/</a> and at: <a href="https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/">https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/</a>.
Any vessel owner/operator with a permit issued by the NMFS Greater
Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) is required to submit an
electronic Vessel Trip Report (eVTR) to report all fish landed and
discarded, regardless of species. NMFS published a final rule requiring
reporting via eVTR for commercial and for-hire vessels with GARFO
permits, which became effective in November 2021 (85 FR 71575, November
10, 2020). Vessel owners/operators reporting via eVTR have the option
to choose between multiple electronic reporting applications, including
GARFO's eVTR applications (e.g., Fish Online), the Standard Atlantic
Fisheries Information System (SAFIS) electronic trip-level reporting
(eTRIPS) Mobile and Online applications, and several applications
offered by private companies, although not all reporting applications
are approved for all regional permits.
Most non-HMS vessel owners/operators from Virginia through Maine
use eVTRs to report their landings. The gear frequently reported via
eVTR includes trawls, dredges, or gillnet gear, and these vessel
owners/operators are primarily fishing for non-HMS such as scallops,
squid, herring, groundfish, skates, and spiny dogfish. Owners/operators
of vessels that have GARFO permits that require eVTR reporting, in
addition to their HMS commercial limited access permits, must use the
eVTR in addition to their Atlantic HMS logbook.
HMS vessel owners/operators submitting logbooks (50 CFR
635.5(a)(1)) must enter the required information on a day's fishing
activities within 48 hours of completing that day's activities or
before offloading, whichever is sooner, and they must submit the
logbook form(s) postmarked within 7 days of offloading all HMS. GARFO
permit holders must complete eVTRs to the extent possible prior to
entering port and submit within 48 hours of offloading fish. Generally,
SERO permit holders must submit fishing records to the SEFSC postmarked
no later than 7 days after the end of each fishing trip.

[[Page 72799]]

NMFS is considering two suites of alternatives regarding
implementation of a commercial electronic logbook to replace the
existing paper commercial Atlantic HMS logbook and the Coastal
Fisheries logbook. Alternative A1 addresses the format for submission
of logbooks and associated weighout slips. Alternative A2 addresses the
timing requirement for logbook submission. Sub-alternatives under these
alternatives are described below.

Alternative A1. Format for Submission of Logbooks and Associated
Weighout Slips

NMFS is proposing, under the preferred Sub-alternative A1b, to
require owners/operators of vessels with HMS commercial limited access
permits (i.e., Atlantic Tunas Longline category, shark directed, shark
incidental, swordfish directed, swordfish incidental, and swordfish
handgear) to complete and submit logbook reports electronically under
the SEFSC Commercial Electronic Logbook through an electronic system/
application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting. The data
elements/information collected under the SEFSC Commercial Electronic
Logbook would remain the same as the status quo, but the questions/
prompts for the information may vary depending on the electronic
reporting system/application the vessel owner/operator is using. In
addition, the level of detail for certain required data/information may
vary based, in part, on the gear type used. In general, relevant set
level reporting would include the specific latitude and longitude
coordinates at which gear was set and hauled back, the amount of gear
used, and the number and species of fish kept, released alive, and
discarded dead, and protected species interactions. Vessel owners/
operators would be required to provide information on the trip itself,
such as the start and end dates, the vessel name and identification
number, which dealers purchased landings, and port information.
Under preferred Sub-alternative A1b, the current requirement for
weighout slips (50 CFR 635.5(a)(2)) would not change except for how
they are submitted to NMFS. Rather than being mailed in, the weighout
slips would be submitted electronically with the logbook as an uploaded
file. NMFS would develop an optional standardized weighout slip form
which vessel owners/operators could choose to utilize in submitting the
required weighout information with their electronic logbook. Note that
under preferred Alternative D2 described below, NMFS is also proposing
that dealers be required to report individual carcass weights for
additional species. Should NMFS finalize such data collection from both
vessel weighout slips and dealers, NMFS may evaluate whether sufficient
information is being collected via dealer reporting to enable the
discontinuation of collecting individual carcass weights on vessel
weighout slips at some point in the future. Any such change would be
considered in a future rulemaking.
Under this preferred sub-alternative, no change would be made to
selection of vessel owners with HMS commercial limited access permits
to complete the cost-earnings portion of the logbook and the Atlantic
Highly Migratory Species Annual Expenditures form(s) (50 CFR
635.5(a)(1)).
Under this preferred sub-alternative, electronic submission of
logbooks could allow for ``One Stop Reporting'' for vessel owners/
operators that hold some combination of HMS commercial limited access
permits, SERO permits, and/or GARFO permits. Electronic submission,
including for weighout slips, also reduces the administrative burden on
NMFS for logbook processing. Potentially discontinuing the collection
of individual carcass weights via a weighout slip would shift that
reporting responsibility from vessel owners/operators to dealers.
In addition to preferred Sub-alternative A1b, in the RIR and IRFA
for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed one other sub-
alternative regarding the format for submission of logbooks and
associated weighout slips. Under the status quo Sub-alternative A1a,
owners/operators of vessels with HMS commercial limited access permits
would continue to be required to report their fishing activities in a
paper logbook and to mail in weighout slips (50 CFR 635.5(a)(1) and
(2)). For the logbook, they would continue to report via submission of
paper forms in either the Atlantic HMS logbook or the Coastal Fisheries
logbook. Vessel owners/operators that hold HMS permits and GARFO
permits would continue to report via eVTR as well as on paper.

Alternative A2. Timing Requirement for Logbook Submission

NMFS is proposing, under preferred Sub-alternative A2b, to require
vessel owners/operators to submit completed electronic logbook reports
within 7 days of offloading all HMS. This sub-alternative would remove
the current HMS requirement to enter information into the logbook
within 48 hours of completing that day's activities or before
offloading, whichever is sooner (50 CFR 635.5(a)(1)). However,
communications with vessel owners/operators would still encourage them
to complete logbooks as soon as possible to reduce recall error. If a
vessel owner is selected by NMFS to complete the cost-earnings portion
of the logbook, the owner or operator must likewise submit the cost-
earnings portion of the logbook included in the electronic submission
of the logbook, within 7 days of offloading all HMS. The requirement
for submission of the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Annual
Expenditures form(s) for selected vessel owners would not change from
the status quo (50 CFR 635.5(a)(1)).
The 7-day reporting requirement would be consistent with the status
quo timing requirement for submission of logbooks in the HMS
regulations as well as with the timing requirement for submission of
commercial logbooks by SERO permit holders. The 7-day reporting
requirement would be less restrictive than the 48-hour GARFO eVTR
submission requirement, and less restrictive than the 24-hour
requirement under preferred Sub-alternative B2a below for logbook
submission by owners/operators of vessels with Atlantic Tunas General
category permits, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permits, Swordfish
General Commercial permits, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permits, which
aligns with the current 24-hour catch reporting requirement for those
vessels. Vessel owners/operators that hold both HMS commercial limited
access permits and GARFO permits would continue to follow the 48-hour
eVTR submission requirement for GARFO permit holders.
While NMFS would, through communications with vessels, continue to
encourage vessel owners/operators to complete logbooks as soon as
possible, removing the HMS 48-hour logbook information entry
requirement from the regulations would simplify reporting by having a
single deadline to complete and submit HMS logbook reports, and would
also better match current practices of vessel owners/operators.
Additionally, requiring logbook submission on a longer timeframe
(i.e., within 7 days, as compared to within 24 or 48 hours) gives more
flexibility to vessel owners/operators to complete reports when they
have the opportunity. A longer timeframe also allows vessel owner/
operators time to receive information they may need from dealers or
others, for example, weighout slips. Giving a longer timeframe for
submission also allows vessel owners/operators time to seek assistance
they may need in completing their logbooks, for example, from customer
service associated with electronic logbooks, or

[[Page 72800]]

language assistance from community groups (e.g., Vietnamese and Spanish
community groups). However, allowing a longer timeframe for logbook
submission may increase recall error, decrease the accuracy of
information, and may not allow NMFS to receive and analyze data in a
timely manner.
In addition to preferred Sub-alternative A2b, in the RIR and IRFA
for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed three other sub-
alternatives regarding timing of logbook submission. Sub-alternative
A2a is the status quo alternative for timing of logbook submission. HMS
vessel owners/operators submitting logbooks would enter the required
information on a day's fishing activities within 48 hours of completing
that day's activities or before offloading, whichever is sooner. The
vessel owner/operator would submit the logbook report within 7 days of
offloading all HMS. If a vessel owner is selected by NMFS to complete
the cost-earnings portion of the logbook, the owner or operator must
maintain and submit the cost-earnings portion of the logbook no later
than 30 days after completing offloading for each fishing trip during
that calendar year and submit the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species
Annual Expenditures form(s) no later than the date specified on the
form of the following year (50 CFR 635.5(a)(1)).
Under Sub-alternative A2c, vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit completed logbook reports within 48 hours of
offloading all HMS, including the cost-earnings portion of the logbook
for selected vessel owners. Under Sub-alternative A2d, vessel owners/
operators would be required to submit completed logbook reports within
24 hours of offloading all HMS, including the cost-earnings portion of
the logbook for selected vessel owners. Under both of these sub-
alternatives, the requirement for submission of the Atlantic Highly
Migratory Species Annual Expenditures form(s) by selected vessel owners
would not change from the status quo.

B. Electronic Logbook for Atlantic Tunas General Category Permit,
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon Category Permit, Swordfish General Commercial
Permit, and HMS Charter/Headboat Permit

Background

Currently, vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas General or
Harpoon category permits must call in or electronically report all
bluefin tuna landings and dead discards to NMFS within 24 hours of
completing a trip (50 CFR 635.5(a)(4)). Owners/operators of HMS
Charter/Headboat permitted vessels must call in or electronically
report all bluefin tuna landings and dead discards, all non-tournament
landings of Atlantic blue marlin, Atlantic white marlin, roundscale
spearfish, and Atlantic sailfish, and all non-tournament and non-
commercial landings of North Atlantic swordfish to NMFS within 24 hours
of completing a trip (50 CFR 635.5(a)(4), (c)(1), and (c)(2)). These
catch reports can be submitted via the HMS Permits website, an HMS
Catch Reporting smartphone application, a telephone number designated
by NMFS, or by other means as specified by NMFS. For telephone landing
reports, the owner, or the owner's designee, must provide a contact
phone number so that a NMFS representative can call the vessel owner,
or the owner's designee, for follow up questions and to confirm the
reported landing. Regardless of how they are submitted, billfish and
swordfish landing reports submitted to NMFS are not complete unless the
vessel owner, or the owner's designee, has received a confirmation
number from NMFS or a NMFS representative.
Currently, owners/operators of vessels with Atlantic Tunas General
category permits, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permits, Swordfish
General Commercial permits, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permits are
only required to maintain and submit paper logbook reports, and report
cost and earnings information, if selected to report in the Atlantic
HMS logbook (50 CFR 635.5(a)(1)). However, this requirement has not
been exercised by NMFS for these sectors on an annual basis due to the
large number of vessel owners that hold these open access permits
(i.e., 7,043 vessel owners in 2022) compared to vessel owners that hold
commercial limited access permits (i.e., 225 vessel owners in 2022) and
the prohibitively large additional administrative burden that paper
logbook reporting would place on the current Atlantic HMS logbook
program. Additionally, until the recent implementation of for-hire
logbook reporting in many fisheries, as described below, the Agency
(i.e., the National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS) standard was to
monitor these fisheries through surveys like the Large Pelagics Survey
(LPS) and Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) surveys,
described below, and through catch reporting. NMFS has instead selected
vessel owners in these sectors to participate in one-time logbook
studies. In 2013, NMFS executed a logbook study to collect cost and
earnings data on charter vessel and headboat trips targeting HMS, and a
similar study of the Atlantic Tunas General category was conducted in
2018.
Owners/operators of vessels with Swordfish General Commercial
permits do not currently complete catch or logbook reporting unless
they also hold an Atlantic Tunas General or Harpoon category permit, or
a GARFO permit, with associated reporting requirements. Note that the
majority of Swordfish General Commercial permits are combined with an
Atlantic Tunas General category or Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category
permit and thus must follow applicable requirements for those other
permits.
Owners/operators of Atlantic Tunas General category, HMS Charter/
Headboat, and HMS Angling permitted vessels are all required, as a
condition of their permit, to cooperate with the LPS if selected for
reporting (50 CFR 635.5(f)). The LPS collects information regarding the
rod and reel fishery directed at large pelagic species (e.g., tunas,
billfishes, swordfish, sharks, wahoo, dolphin, greater amberjack) in
the offshore waters from Maine through Virginia from June through
October. The purpose of the LPS is to collect more precise estimates of
fishing effort and catch for large pelagic species that are rarely
encountered in the general MRIP surveys. The LPS includes three
independent surveys: (1) the Large Pelagics Telephone Survey (LPTS), a
phone survey that collects fishing effort data from randomly selected
vessel owners with Atlantic Tunas General category (as well as HMS
Angling permits); (2) the LPS Add-on to the For-Hire Survey (FHS),
which collects effort data from randomly selected HMS Charter/Headboat
permitted vessels; and (3) the Large Pelagics Intercept Survey (LPIS),
a dockside survey of known offshore fishing access sites, which
collects catch data from both Atlantic Tunas General and HMS Charter/
Headboat permitted vessels (as well as HMS Angling). These surveys
provide effort and average catch-per-trip estimates needed to estimate
total catch by species.
Unlike vessel owners with Atlantic Tunas General category permits,
owners of HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels report their effort
data to the FHS, rather than the LPTS, to avoid duplicate reporting
burden, as most HMS Charter/Headboat vessels also participate in
Council-managed for-hire fisheries, which are monitored by the FHS. An
extra series of questions called ``the LPS Add-on'' is asked of vessels
that report fishing for HMS to collect

[[Page 72801]]

HMS specific data that is needed for LPS effort and catch estimation.
Similar to the LPTS, the FHS is also a telephone survey.
Any vessel owner/operator with a permit issued by GARFO is required
to submit an eVTR to report all fish kept and discarded, regardless of
species or location of fishing, within 48 hours of completing a trip.
Most non-HMS commercial and for-hire vessel owners/operators from
Virginia through Maine use eVTRs to report their landings. Unlike the
Atlantic HMS logbook and the Coastal Fisheries logbook, the eVTR is
used by GARFO permitted commercial vessel owners/operators and by for-
hire charter/headboat vessel owners/operators. Since March 2018, vessel
trip reports are required by all vessels in Mid-Atlantic fisheries
possessing their regional for-hire permits. Similar logbook reporting
requirements were implemented in New England for-hire fisheries in
November 2021.
GARFO eVTRs include trip-level information, gear information,
location by both grid and latitude and longitude coordinates, and, for
commercial trips, the weight of each species kept or discarded. There
is no indication of whether the discards are alive or dead. An entry
must be filled out when the vessel owner/operator moves to a new area
or uses a different gear.
From 2000 through 2015, vessel owners/operators reporting via GARFO
VTR were required to submit a monthly no-fishing report if they did not
fish. These no-fishing reports are no longer required by GARFO. The
final rule stated that NMFS no longer needed no-fishing reports in
those fisheries due to improved trip-level matching and, therefore,
removed the requirement to simplify the regulations and reduce
reporting burdens for the industry (80 FR 51754, August 26, 2015).
The Southeast Regional Headboat Survey (SRHS) began requiring
electronic submission in 2013. In January 2021, electronic logbook
reporting requirements were implemented for South Atlantic and Gulf of
Mexico for-hire vessels not covered by the SRHS reporting requirement.
On February 23, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit set aside the final rule (85 FR 44005, July 21, 2020)
implementing the Southeast For-Hire Integrated Electronic Reporting
(SEFHIER) program in the Gulf of Mexico. This means the SEFHIER program
for the Gulf of Mexico is currently not in effect; all other for-hire
reporting programs in the Gulf of Mexico remain in effect (e.g., SRHS
and HMS Charter/Headboat catch reporting). The Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council convened an Ad hoc Charter For-hire Data Collection
Advisory Panel beginning in 2024, charged with, among other things,
providing Gulf-wide stakeholder insight on the development of a new
electronic data collection program for the federally permitted charter
vessel and headboat components. The report of the first meeting of the
Ad hoc Charter For-hire Data Collection Advisory Panel can be found at:
<a href="https://gulfcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/AdHocCharterForHireAP_meeting-summary_1_16_24.pdf">https://gulfcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/AdHocCharterForHireAP_meeting-summary_1_16_24.pdf</a>. Information on
development of an FMP amendment can be found at: <a href="https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/">https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/</a>.
South Atlantic federally permitted for-hire permit holders are
required to submit electronic logbooks weekly and are required to
submit reports for each trip that include details on fishing effort,
catch, including fish retained and released for all species, and
economic information. South Atlantic federally permitted for-hire
permit holders must submit a no-fishing report on weeks when no for-
hire fishing activity takes place. Headboat owners in the South
Atlantic and Gulf reporting to the SRHS submit reports on a weekly
basis.
For-hire vessels have the option to choose between multiple
electronic reporting applications, including GARFO's eVTR applications
(e.g., Fish Online), the Standard Atlantic Fisheries Information System
(SAFIS) electronic trip-level reporting (eTRIPS) Mobile and Online
applications, and several applications offered by private companies,
although not all reporting applications are approved for all regional
permits. Currently, data elements necessary to meet HMS catch reporting
requirements for recreational landings of bluefin tuna, billfish, and
swordfish have been integrated into eTRIPS Mobile and eTRIPS Online
software applications. The eTRIPS Mobile application allows for ``One
Stop Reporting'' capabilities (outside of the SRHS).
NMFS is considering three suites of alternatives regarding
implementation of an electronic logbook requirement for vessel owners/
operators that hold an Atlantic Tunas General category permit, Atlantic
Tunas Harpoon category permit, Swordfish General Commercial permit,
and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permit. Alternative B1 addresses electronic
logbook requirements for these permit categories. Alternative B2
addresses the timing requirement for electronic logbook submission.
Alternative B3 addresses cost and earnings information. Sub-
alternatives under these alternatives are described below.

Alternative B1. Electronic Logbook Requirements

NMFS is proposing, under preferred Sub-alternative B1c, to expand
species and trip reporting requirements via electronic logbook for
vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic
Tunas Harpoon category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits. Vessel owners/operators would report through
an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS
reporting. Similar to the paper commercial Atlantic HMS logbook, the
electronic logbook under this sub-alternative would require reporting
on all trips, regardless of whether fish were caught, and would collect
information on all species, not only on HMS. Accordingly, electronic
logbook information collection would include reporting of the number
and species of all fish kept/landed, discarded dead, and released
alive. As with the Atlantic HMS logbook, Coastal Fisheries logbook, and
the GARFO eVTR, this electronic logbook program would also collect
information on fishing location, such as latitude and longitude
coordinates associated with primary fishing location. This electronic
logbook program would require no-fishing reports on a monthly basis for
months in which no fishing activity took place.
Electronic logbook reporting under preferred Sub-alternative B1c
would be for all trips, including trips taken by an Atlantic Tunas
General category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/
Headboat permitted vessel when participating in a tournament. Vessel
owners/operators would indicate in the logbook which trips were
associated with a tournament.
Implementation of an electronic logbook program would place
additional burden on vessel owners/operators, as well as additional
administrative burden on NMFS (although less administrative burden than
implementing a paper logbook program). However, the electronic logbook
program would have a number of benefits and is expected to improve
conservation and management, as described below.
Currently, vessel owners/operators in these sectors are only
reporting catches of certain HMS, as described above. Limiting
reporting to only certain HMS allows other species to be caught but not
reported. This limited reporting could reduce future management

[[Page 72802]]

effectiveness, as events such as HMS range expansion, shark or other
predator depredation, or developing fisheries for HMS, would be
overlooked in the data system. This would hinder NMFS' ability to
modify managed species in response to environmental, social, or
economic changes that may occur in the future. Only reporting some
species may also undermine efforts by NMFS to fully understand fishing
operations, and the ability to assess the impacts of potential
management actions.
Further, electronic logbook data would enable near real-time
monitoring of catch, which can lead to more effective application of
seasonal closures and retention limit changes that occur during fishing
seasons. This data collection would also facilitate the development of
new indicators of relative abundance for Atlantic tunas and improve the
precision of existing indicators. For example, reporting all trips
would provide the necessary information to determine catch-per-unit-
effort in the bluefin tuna fishery, or other tuna fisheries, for the
gear types fished with these permits. The electronic logbook program
would allow NMFS to report more detailed effort and catch data to the
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT), which could potentially contribute to improved stock
assessments and management strategy evaluation (MSE) that determines
total allowable catch levels and inform quota allocation and other
conservation and management decisions. Information on the spatial and
temporal distributions of fish and fishing effort from electronic
vessel reporting would facilitate efforts to understand the efficacy of
fishing regulations and evaluate alternative management actions.
Collection of information on primary fishing location would also
facilitate numerous analyses regarding the distribution of these
fisheries. Such information could help inform stock assessments,
economic analyses, impact assessments for offshore developments such as
offshore wind and aquaculture, impacts of marine monuments, management
decisions related to climate impacts, or other changes in spatial
management.
The requirement to submit no-fishing reports on a monthly basis for
months in which no fishing activity took place would be similar to what
is currently required for the commercial paper Atlantic HMS logbook
(see 50 CFR 635.5(a)(1)). The SEFHIER program in the South Atlantic
requires no-fishing reports on a weekly basis. GARFO permit holders are
not required to submit no-fishing reports. No-fishing reports are a
significant aid for facilitating regular compliance checks, as it is
difficult to ascertain if a lack of reports over a given time period
was due to non-compliance or the simple absence of fishing effort. No-
fishing reports are especially important in instances where there are
no corresponding dealer reports and no pre-trip notifications, such as
for vessels with HMS Charter/Headboat permits on non-commercial trips.
Submitting all required reports is currently a requirement in order
to renew any HMS permit (see 50 CFR 635.4(m)). In order to renew an HMS
limited access permit, NMFS confirms the vessel owner's compliance with
all logbook requirements. The same reporting compliance check is
difficult to undertake for vessel owners renewing HMS open access
permits (e.g., Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon
category, Swordfish General Commercial, HMS Charter/Headboat), because
there is no mandatory, comprehensive logbook requirement. The
requirement to submit no-fishing reports would also contribute to NMFS'
ability to carry out compliance checks in consideration of issuing
permits. These compliance checks are not currently done for open access
permit renewals because, in the absence of a logbook program that
includes reporting on every trip and no-fishing reports, there would
not be a way to routinely determine whether vessel owners were not
reporting, not fishing, or fishing but not catching HMS.
Regarding the relationship between an electronic logbook program
and fishing surveys, a logbook program would have the benefit of
providing more detailed effort and catch data than what are currently
collected by the LPS. Following a period of overlapping data collection
to facilitate calibration of the catch data time series, this logbook
could allow owners/operators of Atlantic Tunas General category
permitted vessels to be exempted from participation in the LPTS and
minimize their participation in the dockside LPIS to a simple
validation survey. The latter may not even be needed for the General
category as their commercial catch could also be validated with dealer
landings data.
Effort data reported via an electronic logbook could be used to
substitute for effort data that HMS Charter/Headboat vessel owners/
operators would otherwise be required to report to the FHS. NMFS is
already using eVTR data for this purpose to exempt for-hire vessels
with Council permits from reporting to the FHS to minimize the
redundant reporting burden. HMS Charter/Headboat vessel operators would
need to participate in dockside surveys, such as through the LPIS or
through the Access Point Angler Intercept Survey (APAIS), which could
serve as a validation check for logbook reported data. A proposal has
already been put forward by the Atlantic Coast Cooperative Statistics
Program for MRIP certification to use the APAIS as a validation survey
of for-hire logbook data collected in the Atlantic.
The requirement to report on all trips, regardless of whether fish
were caught, and to report all species, would be consistent with the
current commercial Atlantic HMS logbook and with requirements for GARFO
commercial and for-hire permit holders and SERO South Atlantic for-hire
permit holders.
In addition to preferred Sub-alternative B1c, in the RIR and IRFA
for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed two other sub-
alternatives regarding reporting requirements for vessel owners/
operators that hold an Atlantic Tunas General category permit, Atlantic
Tunas Harpoon category permit, Swordfish General Commercial permit,
and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permit. Sub-alternative B1a is the status
quo alternative for catch reporting for these permits. NMFS would
maintain existing electronic catch reporting for vessel owners/
operators with Atlantic Tunas General and Harpoon category permits
through an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic
HMS reporting (currently, the HMS Permits website or the HMS Catch
Reporting smartphone application) or reporting via telephone. NMFS
would require reporting of bluefin tuna landings and dead discards
only, and vessel owners/operators would only report on trips where
bluefin tuna are caught. NMFS would also maintain existing electronic
reporting for owners/operators of HMS Charter/Headboat permitted
vessels through an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for
Atlantic HMS reporting (currently, the HMS Permits website or the HMS
Catch Reporting smartphone application), reporting via telephone, or by
other means as specified by NMFS (currently eTRIPS and State catch
cards). Owners/operators of HMS Charter/Headboat permitted vessels
would report all bluefin tuna landings and dead discards, all non-
tournament landings of Atlantic blue marlin, Atlantic white marlin,
roundscale spearfish, and Atlantic sailfish, and all non-tournament and
non-commercial landings of North Atlantic swordfish. Sub-alternative
B1b would be the same as Sub-alternative B1a with the

[[Page 72803]]

exception of removing the option to report via telephone.

Alternative B2. Timing Requirement for Electronic Logbook Submission

Alternative B2 only applies if implementing an electronic logbook
under preferred Sub-alternative B1c above. The following sub-
alternatives consider the timing requirement for submission of an
electronic logbook.
NMFS is proposing, under preferred Sub-alternative B2a, to require
vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic
Tunas Harpoon category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits to submit completed electronic logbooks within
24 hours of the end of a trip. This sub-alternative would maintain the
24-hour catch reporting requirement that vessel owners/operators
currently follow but would expand the amount of information they may be
submitting after each trip.
Requiring logbook submission within 24 hours would allow NMFS to
receive and analyze data in the shortest timeframe (compared to 48
hours or 7 days). In addition, it could improve some aspects of data
quality and accuracy by reducing recall bias and reducing uncertainty
associated with these data when used in science or management
applications. It could also expedite data availability for fisheries
management purposes. Apart from considerations for other fisheries,
reporting within 24 hours facilitates faster management actions (e.g.,
inseason closures, retention limit changes, etc.) in response to the
availability of bluefin tuna on fishing grounds. This preferred sub-
alternative would maintain the 24-hour reporting deadline for bluefin
tuna while providing for a single timing requirement for all logbook
submissions. Having more than one reporting deadline under this logbook
would make the regulations more complex both for vessel owners/
operators and for enforcement.
However, a 24-hour timeframe to report may result in vessel owners/
operators having to go back and update reports with ancillary
information more frequently than if they had longer to report.
Requiring logbook submission on a longer timeframe (i.e., longer than
24 hours), on the other hand, gives more flexibility to vessel owners/
operators to find time to complete reports. Giving a longer timeframe
for submission also allows vessel owners/operators time to seek
assistance they may need in completing their logbooks, for example,
from customer service associated with electronic logbooks, or language
assistance from community groups. For completion of this proposed
electronic logbook however, extra time beyond 24 hours for flexibility
and assistance may not be needed because trips taken by these vessels
are typically shorter and with much less catch compared to vessels with
HMS commercial limited access permits, and therefore reporting is
expected to be less complex and take less time.
Some GARFO and SERO South Atlantic for-hire vessel owners/operators
possess HMS Charter/Headboat permits in case of incidental HMS catch.
Given that preferred Sub-alternative B2a would be more restrictive than
the reporting requirements for GARFO commercial or for-hire permit
holders, or for SERO South Atlantic for-hire permit holders, these
permit holders may decide to drop their HMS permits to avoid the extra
reporting burden. While losing these permit holders and their data
could have some minor negative effects on NMFS' ability to monitor HMS
fisheries in a timely manner, it is more likely that permit holders who
drop their HMS permits were not fishing for HMS. Any negative effects
would be offset by the positive effects of having more timely data on
all species caught by owners/operators who actively fish for HMS.
In addition to preferred Sub-alternative B2a, in the RIR and IRFA
for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed three other sub-
alternatives regarding timing of electronic logbook submission. Under
Sub-alternative B2b, vessel owners/operators would be required to
submit completed electronic logbooks within 48 hours of the end of a
trip. Under Sub-alternative B2c, for trips with bluefin tuna landings
or dead discards, vessel owners/operators would be required to submit
completed electronic logbooks within 24 hours of the end of a trip. For
trips with no bluefin tuna landings or dead discards, vessel owners/
operators would be required to submit completed electronic logbooks
within 48 hours of the end of a trip. Under Sub-alternative B2d, for
trips with bluefin tuna landings or dead discards, vessel owners/
operators would be required to submit completed electronic logbooks
within 24 hours of the end of a trip. For trips with no bluefin tuna
landings or dead discards, vessel owners/operators would be required to
submit completed electronic logbooks within 7 days of the end of a
trip.

Alternative B3. Cost and Earnings Information

NMFS is proposing, under preferred Sub-alternative B3c, to require
all vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas General category,
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or
HMS Charter/Headboat permits to submit cost and earnings information
for each trip through the completion of a cost-earnings portion in the
electronic logbook. This requirement would follow the timing
implemented under Alternative B2 in order to maintain one timeline for
reporting and facilitate compliance monitoring. Examples of cost
information collected in the electronic logbook could include, but are
not limited to, fuel, bait, ice, groceries, and payouts to crew and
captains. Earnings information collected in the electronic logbook
could include trip sales or trip fare.
Additionally, under this preferred sub-alternative, vessel owners/
operators would be selected by NMFS to submit additional cost and
earnings information via an annual survey. NMFS would likely select no
more than 20 percent of vessel owners/operators, similar to the current
selection percentage for cost and earnings reporting under the logbook
for vessel owners/operators with HMS commercial limited access permits.
This selection rate should provide NMFS with a representative sample of
the HMS fishery as a whole. Examples of expenditures collected in the
additional annual survey could include, but are not limited to, repair
and maintenance expenses, fishing supplies, drydock expenses, equipment
costs, insurance, boat dockage, fishing licenses and permits, vessel
boat loan payments, relocation expenses, business taxes, and office
expenses.
Reporting cost and earnings information on all trips would be
consistent with the electronic reporting requirements for vessel owner/
operators with Federal for-hire permits in the South Atlantic. Detailed
economic data, collected in real time, would enhance NMFS' ability to
understand how these sectors are impacted when regulatory change is
considered. These data would be used in cost-benefit and economic
impact analyses for actions and amendments that propose regulatory
changes. Additionally, improved characterization of costs and earnings
for these sectors would allow NMFS to better monitor the economic
health of the industry over time and facilitate economic recovery from
fishery disasters. For efficiency and to ease

[[Page 72804]]

reporting burden, some of these data may be collected by a sample of
the fleet via an additional annual survey (e.g., boat payments,
equipment costs, insurance), as is proposed here. However, if preferred
Sub-alternative B2a is implemented, collecting cost and earnings
information for each trip would add to the information that vessel
owners/operators would need to report within 24 hours after a trip.
In addition to preferred Sub-alternative B3c, in the RIR and IRFA
for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed two other sub-
alternatives regarding cost and earnings information. Sub-alternative
B3a is the status quo alternative for collection of cost and earnings
information. The existing regulation at Sec. 635.5(a)(1) states that
NMFS may select the owner of an HMS charter/headboat vessel, Atlantic
tunas vessel, or swordfish vessel, among others, to report in a logbook
and complete the cost and earnings portion of the logbook. Vessel
owners/operators are currently required to report cost and earnings
information for each trip within 30 days, if selected by NMFS for that
calendar year. Selected vessel owners/operators would also submit
annual expenditure information. This status quo requirement to report
in logbooks, including completion of the cost-earnings portion,
although in the regulations, has not been exercised by NMFS on a
regular basis for vessel owners with open access commercial or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits, as described above. In contrast, cost and
earnings information is regularly collected from vessel owners with HMS
commercial limited access permits as described under the A alternatives
above. Under Sub-alternative B3b, vessel owners/operators selected by
NMFS for a given calendar year would submit cost and earnings
information only via an annual survey, rather than through post-trip
logbook submissions. An annual survey would include questions on the
costs and earnings for a typical trip but would not provide as complete
data as if all vessel owners/operators were reporting some information
on every trip.

C. HMS Angling Permit Reporting Requirements

Background

Currently, HMS Angling permitted vessels must report all bluefin
tuna landings and dead discards, as well as all non-tournament landings
of Atlantic blue marlin, Atlantic white marlin, roundscale spearfish,
Atlantic sailfish, and North Atlantic swordfish to NMFS within 24 hours
of the landing (50 CFR 635.5(c)). These catch reports can be
electronically submitted via the HMS Permits website or an HMS Catch
Reporting smartphone application, a telephone number designated by
NMFS, or by other means as specified by NMFS. For telephone landing
reports, the owner, or the owner's designee, must provide a contact
phone number so that a NMFS representative can call the vessel owner,
or the owner's designee, for follow up questions and to confirm the
reported landing. Regardless of how catch reports are submitted,
billfish and swordfish landing reports submitted to NMFS are not
complete unless the vessel owner, or the owner's designee, has received
a confirmation number from NMFS or a NMFS representative (50 CFR
635.5(c)(2)).
NMFS is considering four alternatives regarding reporting
requirements for vessel owners with an HMS Angling permit, as described
below.

Alternative C2. Remove the Option to Report Via Telephone

NMFS is proposing, under preferred Alternative C2, to largely
maintain the status quo reporting requirements, with the exception of
removing the option to report via telephone. Vessel owners with HMS
Angling permits would be required to report all bluefin tuna landings
and dead discards, and non-tournament landings of billfish and
swordfish. These catch reports can be submitted through an electronic
system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting
(currently, the HMS Permits website or the HMS Catch Reporting
smartphone application).
Removing telephone reporting would modernize and streamline the
reporting system. Additionally, this switch would relieve the Agency of
the administrative time and cost of receiving and returning phone calls
and voicemails. While there may be individuals who prefer to report via
telephone and would need to change their current practices to report
electronically, most reports are currently received using the website
or smartphone application. For example, in 2022, over 90 percent of
reports were submitted via electronic reporting system.

Other Alternatives Analyzed (C1, C3, and C4)

In addition to preferred Alternative C2, in the RIR and IRFA for
this action, NMFS also described and analyzed three other alternatives
regarding reporting requirements for vessel owners with an HMS Angling
permit. Alternative C1 is the status quo alternative under which vessel
owners would be required to report all bluefin tuna, billfish, and
swordfish landings and bluefin tuna dead discards (50 CFR 635.5(c)).
These catch reports can be submitted through an electronic system/
application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting (currently, the
HMS Permits website or the HMS Catch Reporting smartphone application),
a telephone number designated by NMFS, or by other means as specified
by NMFS. Alternative C3 would require the owner of an HMS Angling
permitted vessel to report all pelagic shark (i.e., blue, porbeagle,
common thresher, and, if and when allowed, shortfin mako sharks)
landings, in addition to the status quo. Alternative C4 would require
the owner of an HMS Angling permitted vessel to report all BAYS tunas
landings, in addition to the status quo. Both of these alternatives
would result in more comprehensive reporting of species landed in the
HMS recreational sector compared to the status quo, including
additional species that are reported to ICCAT. However, these
additional species would likely increase reporting complexity, increase
the time burden associated with reporting, and potentially increase the
frequency of reporting. Management needs for such detailed reporting
may be premature considering the additional reporting burden.

D. HMS Dealer Reporting: Individual Fish Reports and Technical Change
in Bluefin Tuna Reporting Requirements

Background

Landing weight and price for most HMS are collected from dealer
reports submitted electronically from dealers residing in Maine through
Texas, including the U.S. Caribbean. All HMS dealer reports are
submitted on an individual trip basis, with dealers providing
information on the weight and price of HMS purchased from U.S. fishing
vessels (50 CFR 635.5(b)). In some cases, mostly for ICCAT-managed
species such as swordfish and tunas, dealers may report the weight and
price information for each individual fish instead of an aggregate
weight for a given species. In the case of bluefin tuna, dealers are
currently required to report individual fish weights.
As a quality control measure, NMFS regularly cross-validates the
weight of fish and the purchase dates provided in dealer reports with
vessel logbook trip information, including the weighout slips, to
ensure all fish are accounted for in these fisheries that are required
to submit this information. Where available, when discrepancies are
found between the dealer reports, logbook, and

[[Page 72805]]

weighout slips, NMFS works to ensure the fish are correctly entered in
the appropriate dealer reporting system and in the logbook. Similarly,
for bluefin tuna, information in the dealer landings dataset is
compared to the open access vessel catch report dataset for quality
assurance.
Currently, dealers with Atlantic tunas dealer permits must submit a
complete bi-weekly report on forms available from NMFS for bluefin tuna
received from U.S. vessels (50 CFR 635.5(b)(2)(i)(B)). For bluefin tuna
received from U.S. vessels on the 1st through the 15th of each month,
the dealer must submit the bi-weekly report form to NMFS, to be
received by NMFS, no later than the 25th of that month. Reports of
bluefin tuna received on the 16th through the last day of each month
must be received by NMFS no later than the 10th of the following month.
NMFS is considering four alternatives regarding individual fish
reports by HMS dealers and/or bluefin tuna reporting requirements, with
two preferred, as described below.

Alternative D2. Expand Individual Fish Reports to BAYS Tunas,
Swordfish, and Pelagic Sharks

NMFS is proposing, under preferred Alternative D2, to require
Federal HMS dealers to report individual fish weights for BAYS tunas,
swordfish, and pelagic sharks listed under heading C of Table 1 of
appendix A to this part (i.e., blue, porbeagle, common thresher, and,
if and when allowed, shortfin mako sharks), in addition to bluefin tuna
on their dealer reports.
Currently, dealers have flexibility to report according to their
business practices, so some reports are at the individual fish level
and some reports are at the aggregate weight level for fish that are
all of the same species, quality, and price. Most non-bluefin tuna
dealer reports provide an aggregate species weight instead of an
individual weight for each fish. Dealer reports also include varying
specificity in gear type information. In addition to dealer reports,
currently, dealers typically generate individual fish weight
information on weighout slips and share that information with vessel
owners/operators. Vessel owners/operators required to report in the
Atlantic HMS logbook, in turn, submit the weighout slips with their
logbook submissions, where it is associated with the gear type utilized
and other information in their logbook report. The submitted individual
fish weight information currently covers the HMS gear types that report
in the Atlantic HMS logbook, i.e., primarily vessels using pelagic
longline gear or other gears targeting swordfish and tunas, and this
information is currently used in ICCAT stock assessments and economic
analyses. However, current size samples (for species other than bluefin
tuna) from HMS fisheries are not representative of all HMS catches
because not all HMS fisheries occurring in all geographic ranges (e.g.,
fisheries pursued under HMS open access permits) are required to report
individual fish size of their catches. Requiring HMS dealers to report
individual carcass weights for BAYS tunas, swordfish, and pelagic
sharks expands data available for use in stock assessments, which could
result in reducing the uncertainty of the assessment results. It also
expands data available to estimate revenue for economic analyses of
these fisheries.
State of the art stock assessment models, including those utilized
by ICCAT, use individual fish size (size samples) as part of the
necessary input data. Size samples from different fisheries that are
representative of the catches are important to reduce the uncertainty
in stock assessment results. Age structure models also required that
the size samples be expanded to create a size distribution of the
entire catch (i.e., catch-at-size). Scientists also use size samples to
estimate gear size selectivity (i.e., the range of fish sizes caught by
a particular gear). When size samples from a particular gear are not
available, scientists have to mirror the size selectivity from another
gear to the gear missing the size samples, and this could bias the
stock assessment results. In addition, size samples allow scientists to
identify strong recruitment or recruitment failure events.
The way individual fish weight data are used in stock assessments
can be illustrated for bluefin tuna. Currently and for the past 45
years, HMS dealers and vessel owners/operators have been required to
report individual carcass information for all commercially landed
Atlantic bluefin tuna (electronic reporting has been required since
2016). Bluefin tuna are the only HMS that are tagged by dealers when
landed, which provides the most precise way to identify individual fish
across data streams. These requirements provided fishery scientists
with unique high-quality data that contributed to the stock assessments
of western Atlantic bluefin tuna. More specifically, since individual
fish are reported by HMS vessel owners/operators and carcass weights of
all commercially landed bluefin tuna were collected and reported by HMS
dealers, scientists were not required to use a limited number of size
samples to estimate the total catch-at-size of the landings. Therefore,
the catch-at-size from bluefin tuna U.S. commercial landings was
considered to be accurate. In addition, these data allowed ICCAT
assessment scientists to estimate gear size selectivity for all of the
U.S. bluefin tuna commercial fisheries without the need to apply any
substitutions. This resulted in ICCAT stock assessment results with
lower uncertainties. These size data were also used to monitor the 2003
strong year class and allowed ICCAT to develop management measures in
part due to that strong year class, including a higher total allowable
catch. Finally, the U.S. high quality data that are a result of the
reporting of individual carcass weights were instrumental in the
development and adoption by ICCAT of the first western Atlantic bluefin
tuna MSE, which is considered a state of the art approach for the
management of fish stocks.
Under preferred Sub-alternative B1c, NMFS would expand species and
trip reporting requirements via electronic logbook for vessel owners/
operators with Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon
category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat
permits. This logbook would provide data for additional gear types
that, taken together with individual fish weights through dealer
reports, would approach the finer resolution of data that NMFS
currently collects for bluefin tuna, to be used in stock assessments
and other applications described above. Given that ICCAT stock
assessments rely on fishery indices from individual countries, NMFS
expects that finer resolution in the U.S. size frequency distributions
will result in improved stock assessments for non-bluefin tuna
fisheries overall, and thus better-informed ICCAT management measures
in the future. Collecting individual fish weights through dealer
reporting, in combination with logbook reporting for vessels with these
permits, would also improve revenue estimates for economic analyses of
these fisheries, for example, when analyzing economic impacts of
spatial restrictions on fisheries.
As described under preferred Sub-alternative A1b, weighout slip
submission would continue under the SEFSC Commercial Electronic
Logbook. After collecting data from both vessel weighout slips and
dealers, NMFS may consider in the future whether sufficient information
is being collected via dealer reporting before deciding whether to
discontinue collection of individual carcass weights on weighout slips.

[[Page 72806]]

Alternative D4. Remove the Requirement To Submit a Bi-Weekly Report for
Bluefin Tuna

Under preferred Alternative D4, Atlantic tunas dealers would no
longer be required to submit a bi-weekly report for bluefin tuna. The
information submitted via the bi-weekly report is already collected
under other bluefin tuna reporting requirements at Sec.
635.5(b)(2)(i)(A). This preferred alternative would reduce the
reporting burden for Atlantic tunas dealers and administrative burden
on NMFS.

Other Alternatives Analyzed (D1 and D3)

In addition to the above preferred alternatives, in the RIR and
IRFA for this action, NMFS also described and analyzed two other
alternatives regarding HMS dealer reporting requirements. Alternative
D1 is the status quo alternative for Federal HMS dealer reporting.
Currently, dealers are required to report individual fish weights only
for bluefin tuna. For other species (i.e., swordfish, BAYS tunas,
sharks), dealers may report individual fish weights or they may report
an aggregate weight for a given species. Currently, dealers with
Atlantic tunas dealer permits must also submit a complete bi-weekly
report on forms available from NMFS for bluefin tuna received from U.S.
vessels.
Under Alternative D3, dealers buying fish landed from vessels whose
owners/operators are submitting weighout slips with their logbook
reporting (i.e., owners/operators that report in the Atlantic HMS
logbook, or that would report in the SEFSC Commercial Electronic
Logbook under preferred Sub-alternative A1b) would not be required to
report swordfish, BAYS tunas, and pelagic shark species individually on
Federal dealer reports. Dealers would only be required to report these
species individually, when buying fish landed from vessels whose owner/
operators do not submit weighout slips (i.e., owners/operators of
vessels with an Atlantic Tunas General category permit, Atlantic Tunas
Harpoon category permit, Swordfish General Commercial permit, and/or
HMS Charter/Headboat permit). Note that under this alternative, the
Agency would need to maintain the weighout slip requirement for vessel
owners/operators reporting in the SEFSC Commercial Electronic Logbook
and the associated burden on the Agency to enter data received via
weighout slip.
Miscellaneous Regulatory Changes and Related Rulemaking
NMFS is proposing to restructure some paragraphs of the HMS
reporting regulations in Sec. 635.5, including modifying paragraph
headings, to implement the above proposed regulatory changes and
clarify the existing regulations. For example, NMFS is proposing to
include all reporting requirements for owners/operators of vessels with
HMS Charter/Headboat permits under Sec. 635.5(a), rather than both
Sec. 635.5(a) and (c) as they are currently. NMFS is also proposing to
move the existing chartering arrangement regulations at Sec.
635.5(a)(5) to the more applicable section of the regulations under
Sec. 635.32(e).
NMFS is proposing to clarify some of the existing reporting
regulations, including by stating that logbook reporting, currently
under Sec. 635.5(a)(1), includes the disposition of fish caught. NMFS
would clarify which species need individual weights reported in the
weighout slip, currently under Sec. 635.5(a)(2). NMFS would clarify
that Sec. 635.5(a)(6) refers to vessel monitoring system (VMS) and
individual bluefin tuna quota (IBQ) reporting requirements. In
addition, NMFS would clarify that the requirement for dealers to
inspect a vessel's permit applies to all HMS landings received by the
dealer (under Sec. 635.5(b)(1)(i)), and not only for bluefin tuna, and
that, in both cases, dealers collect the vessel number rather than the
permit number. NMFS would also adjust the deadline for modifying dealer
reports under Sec. 635.5(b)(1)(ii) from 30 days to 120 days after the
report is submitted, in order to align with current practices as well
as the operational deadline of other State and Federal dealer reporting
programs. NMFS is proposing to clarify that the confirmation number
required for recreational reporting (see 50 CFR 635.5(c)(2)) is
required for bluefin tuna as well as swordfish and billfish and could
also be a unique identifier for the report (e.g., a vessel trip report
number), as not all electronic reporting systems provide a confirmation
number. NMFS would clarify that alternative recreational catch
reporting methodologies under Sec. 635.5(c)(3) include online
reporting. NMFS is also proposing to add cross-references to Sec.
635.5 that were missing from the prohibitions at Sec. 635.71(a)(25)
and (b)(26). Other proposed regulatory changes include updating cross-
references to paragraphs of Sec. Sec. 635.5 and 635.32 according to
the restructured regulations mentioned above and using the abbreviation
``BFT'' for ``bluefin tuna'' to be consistent across regulations. These
clarifications and corrections would improve the administration and
enforcement of HMS regulations and are consistent with the intent of
this action as well as previously analyzed and approved management
measures.
NMFS is also proposing to remove vessel owners in the squid trawl
fishery and vessel owners with Federal commercial smoothhound permits
from potential logbook and cost-earnings reporting under Sec.
635.5(a)(1) and (2). Consistent with the decision in Amendment 9 to the
2006 Consolidated HMS FMP, vessel owners with Federal commercial
smoothhound permits have not been selected for HMS logbook reporting to
date. Vessel owners in the squid trawl fishery report to GARFO as do
vessel owners with Federal commercial smoothhound permits who also hold
GARFO permits (approximately 60 percent). Catch data from these
fisheries are also collected through dealer reporting. No longer
referring to these permits will further clarify the intent of these
regulations.
For consistency with the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, Public
Law 117-263 Sec. 5946(b) signed into law on December 23, 2022, and as
a clarification of current reporting practices, NMFS proposes to remove
references to reporting shark fins separately from shark carcasses on
weighout slips and dealer reports in the HMS regulations at Sec. Sec.
635.5(a)(2) and (b)(1)(i) and 635.30(c)(3).
As mentioned above, there are several efforts underway regarding
vessel and dealer reporting. One of the objectives of this proposed
rule is to streamline HMS reporting for commercial and recreational
fisheries consistent with the ``One Stop Reporting'' initiative for
HMS, the Greater Atlantic Region, and the Southeast Region fisheries.
To that end, this proposed rule was developed while maintaining
consistency, to the extent practicable, with those efforts. In addition
to this proposed rule, NMFS is currently developing a proposed rule to
implement a joint South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Gulf of
Mexico Fishery Management Council FMP amendment addressing electronic
reporting for commercial vessels. That proposed rule would maintain
reporting requirements for commercial vessels reporting through the
Coastal Fisheries logbook but require electronic submission of reports
using available software. More information on the joint FMP amendment
can be found at: <a href="https://safmc.net/amendments/dolphin-wahoo-amendment-4/">https://safmc.net/amendments/dolphin-wahoo-amendment-4/</a> and at: https://

[[Page 72807]]

gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/.
Additionally, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is
currently considering an FMP amendment on data collection for federally
permitted for-hire vessels. More information on that effort can be
found at: <a href="https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/">https://gulfcouncil.org/fishery-management-2/amendments-under-development/</a>. NMFS would take the appropriate action to implement
the amendment, which could include proposing any changes in a proposed
rule, once the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council submits the
FMP amendment to NMFS.
Request for Comments
NMFS is requesting comments on this proposed rule, which may be
submitted at: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> or at a public hearing. NMFS
solicits comments on this action by January 6, 2025 (see DATES and
ADDRESSES).
Implementation of the measures proposed in this rulemaking is
contingent on available funding. Implementation of some or all aspects
of the preferred alternatives may be delayed pending funding
availability and any needed development of, or changes to, electronic
reporting systems/applications. In addition to comments on the
alternatives themselves, should delayed implementation be necessary,
NMFS is requesting comments on which alternatives the public feels are
most important.
During the comment period, NMFS will hold three public hearings via
webinars, as shown in table 1. Requests for sign language
interpretation, interpretation to another language, or other auxiliary
aids should be directed to Carrie Soltanoff at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c6a5a7b4b4afa3e8b5a9aab2a7a8a9a0a086a8a9a7a7e8a1a9b0">[email&#160;protected]</a> or 301-427-8503, at least 7 days prior to the
meeting. In addition, any requests for in-person public hearings during
the comment period should be directed to Carrie Soltanoff at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6d0e0c1f1f0408431e0201190c03020b0b2d03020c0c430a021b">[email&#160;protected]</a> or 301-427-8503.

Table 1--Dates and Times of Upcoming Public Hearing Webinars
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dates and times Webinar information
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 16, 2024, 9 a.m.-11 https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
a.m. ET. proposed-rule-electronic-reporting-
October 29, 2024, 4 p.m.-6 requirements-atlantic-highly-migratory-
p.m. ET.. species.
December 2, 2024, 9 a.m.-11
a.m. ET..
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The public is reminded that NMFS expects participants at the public
hearings to conduct themselves appropriately. At the beginning of each
public hearing, a representative of NMFS will explain the ground rules
(e.g., alcohol is prohibited from the hearing room, attendees will be
called to give their comments in the order in which they registered to
speak, each attendee will have an equal amount of time to speak, and
attendees should not interrupt one another). At the beginning of the
webinar, the moderator will explain how the webinar will be conducted
and how and when attendees can provide comments. The NMFS
representative will attempt to structure the meeting so that all
attending members of the public will be able to comment, if they so
choose, regardless of the controversial nature of the subject(s).
Attendees are expected to respect the ground rules, and, if they do
not, they may be asked to leave the hearing or may not be allowed to
speak during the webinar.
Classification
Pursuant to section 304(g) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the NMFS
Assistant Administrator has determined that this proposed rule is
consistent with the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP and its amendments, other
provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, ATCA, and other applicable law,
subject to further consideration after public comment.
This action has been determined to be not significant for purposes
of Executive Order 12866.
Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), NMFS has
preliminarily determined that the action proposed falls within
categorical exclusion Category A1, an action that is a technical
correction or a change to a fishery management action or regulation,
which does not result in a substantial change in any of the following:
fishing location, timing, effort, authorized gear types, or harvest
levels. This is a category of actions that does not normally have a
significant effect on the quality of the human environment, is not
connected to a larger action, and does not involve extraordinary
circumstances precluding use of the categorical exclusion. As such,
NMFS has preliminarily determined that this action is categorically
excluded from further NEPA review.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
An IRFA was prepared, as required by section 603 of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act (RFA). The IRFA describes the economic impact this
proposed rule, if adopted, would have on small entities. A summary of
the analysis follows. A copy of this analysis is available from NMFS
(see ADDRESSES).
Section 603(b)(1) requires Agencies to describe the reasons why the
action is being considered. The purpose of this rulemaking is to: (1)
streamline and modernize reporting for HMS through electronic reporting
and consolidation of reporting deadlines, including converting existing
commercial paper logbooks to electronic logbooks; (2) expand electronic
logbook reporting to additional commercial and charter/headboat vessel
owners; and (3) collect additional information from dealers through
existing electronic reporting mechanisms.
Section 603(b)(2) of the RFA requires Agencies to state the
objective of, and legal basis for the proposed action. The expansion of
reporting requirements under this action would create consistency with
Agency efforts in other fisheries and augment data necessary for
fishery science and management. Electronic logbook reporting is a step
towards streamlining HMS reporting for commercial, for-hire, and
private recreational fisheries consistent with the ``One Stop
Reporting'' initiative for HMS, Greater Atlantic Region, and Southeast
Region fisheries. The intent of the ``One Stop Reporting'' initiative
is to expand capabilities for the submission of a single electronic
report to satisfy overlapping reporting requirements of vessels holding
permits in multiple regions.
The legal basis for this proposed rule stems from the Magnuson-
Stevens Act. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NMFS must, consistent with
ten National Standards, manage fisheries to maintain optimum yield (OY)
by rebuilding overfished fisheries and preventing overfishing. This
proposed rule is also consistent with ATCA, under which NMFS is
authorized to promulgate regulations as may be necessary and
appropriate to carry out binding recommendations of ICCAT.
Additionally, any management

[[Page 72808]]

measures must be consistent with other domestic laws including NEPA,
the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Marine Mammal Protection Act
(MMPA), and the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA).
Section 603(b)(3) of the RFA requires agencies to provide an
estimate of the number of small entities to which the rule would apply.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) authorizes an agency to develop
its own industry-specific size standards after consultation with the
SBA Office of Advocacy and an opportunity for public comment (see 13
CFR 121.903(c)). Pursuant to this process, NMFS issued a final rule
that established a small business size standard of $11 million in
annual gross receipts for all businesses in the commercial fishing
industry (North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code
11411) for RFA compliance purposes (80 FR 81194, December 29, 2015;
effective on July 1, 2016). SBA has established size standards for all
other major industry sectors in the United States, including the scenic
and sightseeing transportation (water) sector (NAICS code 487210, for-
hire), which includes charter/party boat entities. The SBA has defined
a small charter/party boat entity as one with average annual receipts
(revenue) of less than $14.0 million. Atlantic HMS dealers can be
classified as fish and seafood merchant wholesalers under NAICS code
424460. SBA has defined a small fish and seafood merchant wholesaler as
any business that employs fewer than 100 employees.
NMFS considers all HMS commercial fishing permit holders to be
small entities because they had average annual receipts of less than
$11 million for commercial fishing. Commercial fishing for Atlantic HMS
only generated just over $40 million in 2021. Of the vessels with HMS
commercial limited access permits, no single pelagic longline vessel
has exceeded $11 million in revenue in recent years. HMS bottom
longline commercial fishing vessels typically earn less revenue than
pelagic longline vessels and, thus, would also be considered small
entities. None of the commercial fishing business owners reported
having more than $11 million in gross receipts on the annual Federal
permit application form for their limited access fishing permit
renewal. SERO issued 802 HMS commercial fishing permits in 2022.
In addition, NMFS estimates 518 permitted dealers would also be
impacted by this proposed rule based on an analysis of our various
dealer permits. NMFS assumes that these dealers are all considered
small entities based on our experience with these businesses and most
employ far fewer than 100 employees.
In addition to the limited access fishing permits issued by SERO,
the proposed rule would also potentially impact HMS open access permit
holders issued via the Atlantic HMS Permit Shop at: <a href="https://hmspermits.noaa.gov/">https://hmspermits.noaa.gov/</a>. In 2022, 4,259 HMS Charter/Headboat category
permits were issued. NMFS is not aware of any HMS Charter/Headboat
permit holders earning more than $14 million, so these businesses are
also considered small entities.
There were also 2,757 Atlantic Tunas General category and Swordfish
General Commercial permits (including Atlantic Tunas General category
permits, Swordfish General Commercial permits, and permits that combine
the two) and 27 Harpoon category permits issued in 2022. NMFS is not
aware of any of these commercial fishing permit holders earning more
than $11 million, so these businesses are also considered small
entities.
This proposed rule would also impact HMS Angling permit holders,
but those permit holders are considered individuals and not small
entities under RFA.
NMFS has determined that the preferred alternatives would not
likely directly affect any small organizations or small government
jurisdictions defined under RFA, nor would there be disproportionate
economic impacts between large and small entities.
Section 603(b)(4) of the RFA requires agencies to describe any new
reporting, recordkeeping and other compliance requirements. Some
preferred alternatives this proposed rule would result in reporting,
record-keeping, and compliance requirements that require a modified
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) filing. This rule revises the existing
requirements for three collections of information, including OMB
Control Number 0648-0371 ``Highly Migratory Species Vessel Logbooks and
Cost-Earnings Data Reports,'' 0648-0040 ``Highly Migratory Species
Dealer Reporting Family of Forms,'' and 0648-0328 ``Atlantic Highly
Migratory Species Recreational Landings and Bluefin Tuna Catch
Reports.''
This proposed rule would revise and extend the existing
requirements under OMB Control Number 0648-0371 for owners/operators of
vessels with HMS commercial limited access permits (i.e., Atlantic
Tunas Longline category, shark directed, shark incidental, swordfish
directed, swordfish incidental, and swordfish handgear) to complete and
submit logbook reports electronically under the SEFSC Commercial
Electronic Logbook through an electronic system/application approved by
NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting, where previously they have been
required to submit a paper-based logbook. Additionally, rather than
mailing in paper weighout slips, vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit them electronically with the logbook as an uploaded
file. NMFS would develop an optional standardized weighout slip form,
which could be completed by HMS dealers for the vessel owners/
operators.
We estimate 225 vessel owners/operators with HMS commercial limited
access permits would complete 45 electronic trip/set reports, and 5 no-
fishing/no catch reports each year with no additional recordkeeping or
reporting costs, excluding labor costs. A subset of 45 vessel owners/
operators with limited access permits would be selected for cost-
earnings reporting which would require the electronic submission of an
estimated 9 trip cost-earnings reports, and one annual expenditure
report per year. Finally, we estimate a maximum of 540 HMS dealers
would use the optional form provided by NMFS to generate 5 vessel
weighout slips per year to be submitted by vessel owners/operators with
electronic logbook requirements.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend the existing
logbook reporting requirements under 0648-0371 for vessel owners/
operators with open access Atlantic tunas and swordfish permits,
including the Atlantic Tunas General or Harpoon category, Swordfish
General Commercial, and HMS Charter/Headboat permits. Currently, these
individuals are only required to maintain and submit paper logbook
reports if selected to report in the Atlantic HMS logbook. Under this
proposed rule, these permit holders would be required to report all
trips, regardless of target species or whether fish were caught,
through an electronic logbook system/application approved by NMFS for
Atlantic HMS reporting. Each trip report would also include trip-level
cost-earnings reporting, and no-fishing reports would be required on a
monthly basis for months in which no fishing activity took place. A
sub-sample of permit holders would also be selected to complete an
annual expenditure report. We estimate 7,043 vessel owners with open
access Atlantic tunas, swordfish, or HMS Charter/Headboat permits would
complete on average 46 trip reports and 4 no-fishing reports each year
with no additional recordkeeping

[[Page 72809]]

of reporting costs (excluding labor costs). A subset of likely no more
than 1,409 vessel owners would be selected to complete an annual
expenditure report.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend reporting
requirements under 0648-0328 ``Atlantic Highly Migratory Species
Recreational Landings and Bluefin Tuna Catch Reports.'' Currently, HMS
Angling, HMS Charter/Headboat, and Atlantic Tunas General and Harpoon
category permit holders are required to submit catch reports for
bluefin tuna, billfish, and swordfish within 24 hours of landing them.
There are several options for submitting these reports, including via
an online reporting portal on the HMS Permits website, an HMS Catch
Reporting mobile application, designated for-hire electronic logbook
applications, two State HMS catch card programs, and a toll-free phone
line. This proposed rule would eliminate the option to report via toll-
free phone line, while continuing to allow reporting via the other
reporting options for HMS Angling permit holders. Under this proposed
rule, HMS Charter/Headboat, Atlantic Tunas General category, and
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permit holders would no longer be
required to submit catch reports, as these data would be captured
through their logbook reports.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend reporting
requirements under 0648-0040, ``Highly Migratory Species Dealer
Reporting Family of Forms'', for federally permitted HMS dealers.
Currently, HMS dealers are required to report individual fish weights
for bluefin tuna but have the option to report aggregate weights for
all other HMS-managed species. This rule proposes to expand the
requirement for HMS dealers to report individual fish weights to BAYS
tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks (i.e., blue, porbeagle, common
thresher, and, if and when allowed, shortfin mako sharks). We estimate
500 HMS dealers would submit 26 electronic landings reports per year.
An additional 40 HMS dealers that use a ``file upload'' model of
reporting would be estimated to submit 45 landings reports per year.
Additionally, this rule proposes to eliminate the requirement for
bluefin tuna dealers to submit bi-weekly landing and trade reports for
bluefin tuna received from U.S. vessels as the information submitted
via these reports is duplicated under other bluefin tuna reporting
requirements.
Under section 603(b)(5) of the RFA, agencies must identify, to the
extent practicable, relevant Federal rules which duplicate, overlap, or
conflict with the proposed action. Fishermen, dealers, and managers in
these fisheries must comply with a number of international agreements,
domestic laws, and other fishery management measures. These include,
but are not limited to, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, ATCA, the High Seas
Fishing Compliance Act, MMPA, ESA, NEPA, PRA, and CZMA. This proposed
action has been determined not to duplicate, overlap, or conflict with
any Federal rules. As described under the objectives for this action,
electronic logbook reporting is a step towards streamlining HMS
reporting for commercial, for-hire, and private recreational fisheries
consistent with the ``One Stop Reporting,'' the intent of which is to
expand capabilities for the submission of a single electronic report to
satisfy overlapping reporting requirements of vessels holding permits
in multiple regions, consolidate reporting deadlines, and thus remove
any duplicative reporting.
One of the requirements of an IRFA is to describe any significant
alternatives to the proposed rule which accomplish the stated
objectives of applicable statutes and which minimize any significant
economic impact of the proposed rule on small entities. The analysis
shall discuss significant alternatives such as: (1) establishment of
differing compliance or reporting requirements or timetables that take
into account the resources available to small entities; (2)
clarification, consolidation, or simplification of compliance and
reporting requirements under the rule for such small entities; (3) use
of performance rather than design standards; and (4) exemptions from
coverage of the rule, or any part thereof, for small entities. These
categories of alternatives are described at 5 U.S.C. 603 (c)(1)-(4).
NMFS examined each of these categories of alternatives. Regarding the
first and fourth categories, NMFS cannot establish differing compliance
or reporting requirements for small entities or exempt small entities
from coverage of the rule or parts of it because all of the businesses
impacted by this rule are considered small entities and thus the
requirements are already designed for small entities. NMFS examined
alternatives that fall under the second category, which requires
agencies to consider whether they can clarify, consolidate, or simplify
compliance and reporting requirements under the proposed rule for small
entities. Many of the alternatives in this proposed rule are designed
to implement electronic reporting, provide more flexibility by allowing
for consolidated ``One Stop Reporting,'' and simplify reporting by
eliminating some required reports. The use of a performance standard,
the third category, to monitor catch and landings by itself is not
practical. NMFS is allowing for some flexibility in the electronic
reporting applications that can be used as long as those programs
collect the necessary data fields, and thus to some degree is
performance oriented versus implementing strict requirements for a
specific electronic reporting application. Thus, NMFS has considered
the significant alternatives to the proposed rule and focused on
modernizing and consolidating reporting requirements for HMS permit
holders in order to minimize any significant economic impact of the
proposed rule on small entities.

A. Electronic Logbook for HMS Commercial Limited Access Permits

NMFS is considering two suites of alternatives regarding
implementation of a commercial electronic logbook to replace the
existing paper commercial Atlantic HMS logbook and Coastal Fisheries
logbook. Alternative A1 addresses the format for submission of logbooks
and associated weighout slips. Alternative A2 addresses the timing
requirement for logbook submission. Sub-alternatives under these
alternatives are described below.

Alternative A1. Format for Submission of Logbooks and Associated
Weighout Slips

Two sub-alternatives are being considered for the format for
submission of logbooks and associated weighout slips (Alternative A1).
Sub-alternative A1a is the status quo alternative for the format for
submission of logbooks and associated weighout slips. The status quo
would maintain consistency with current requirements and maintain the
current business practices of vessel owners/operators. However, given
that other NMFS GARFO and SERO permits require, or have proposed
requiring, electronic submission of logbooks, maintaining paper
reporting for vessel owners/operators with HMS commercial limited
access permits would cause an increased burden on those owners/
operators as they would need to fill out multiple logbook submissions
where they also hold GARFO and/or SERO permits. Electronic submission,
including for weighout slips, also reduces the administrative burden on
the Agency for logbook processing.
Under Sub-alternative A1b, the preferred alternative, owners/
operators of vessels with HMS commercial limited

[[Page 72810]]

access permits would complete and submit logbook reports
electronically, and rather than mailing in the weighout slips, they
would be submitted electronically with the logbook as an uploaded file.
Electronic submission of logbooks could allow for ``One Stop
Reporting'' for vessel owners/operators that hold some combination of
HMS, SERO, and GARFO permits.
NMFS estimates that after an initial period of adjustment of
business practices needed to go from a paper to an electronic format,
the number of reports and time needed to complete the reports will
remain similar to the status quo. NMFS estimates that a typical small
business using the HMS commercial logbook would submit 45 trip reports
per year and each of those reports would take about 12 minutes to
complete. The total reporting burden associated with trip/set summary
reports would be approximately $254 per year per business (45 reports *
0.2 hours * $28.28/hour = $254 per year). NMFS also estimates that a
typical small business using the HMS commercial logbook would submit on
average five No-Fishing/No Catch reports per year that take 2 minutes
to complete. The total reporting burden associated with trip/set
summary reports would be approximately $4 per year per business (5
reports * 0.03 hours * $28.28/hour = $4 per year). NMFS also estimates
that weighout slips are completed by dealers for vessel owners/
operators on average five times per year and can take an hour to
produce for a total estimated labor burden per business per year of
approximately $141 (5 reports * 1 hour * $28.28/hour = $141 per year).
Based on 2022 logbook reporting activity, 137 vessels reported in the
current paper based Atlantic HMS logbook and 86 HMS permitted vessels
reported HMS landings in the Coastal Fisheries logbook. These reports
would take an estimated 10 and 2 minutes to complete, respectively, for
a combined 2,059 burden hours per year across the fleet.
Note that under Sub-alternative A1b, NMFS may evaluate the need to
continue to collect individual carcass weights via weighout slips in
the future. Under preferred Alternative D2, described below, dealers
would be required to report individual carcass weights for additional
species. After collecting data from both vessel weighout slips and
dealers, NMFS would consider whether sufficient information is being
collected via dealer reporting to discontinue collection of individual
carcass weights on weighout slips in the future. That would save
dealers the costs associated with producing weighout slips for vessel
owners/operators or vessel owner/operators having to create those
weighout slips themselves. The average cost per dealer is approximately
$141 per year to complete weighout slips.

Alternative A2. Timing Requirement for Logbook Submission

NMFS is considering four sub-alternatives regarding the timing
requirements for logbook submission. Sub-alternative A2a is the status
quo alternative for timing of logbook submission. The status quo would
maintain consistency with current requirements and maintain the current
business practices of vessel owners/operators, and therefore not change
the operating costs for these small businesses. However, maintaining a
two-tiered requirement for timing of reporting (i.e., entering
information within 48 hours and submitting logbook reports within 7
days) may make the regulations overly complicated. The requirement to
submit logbooks within 7 days of offloading would remain consistent
with the requirement for SERO permit holders. Vessel owners/operators
that hold both HMS commercial limited access permits and GARFO permits
would continue to follow the 48-hour reporting requirement for GARFO
permit holders.
Under preferred Sub-alternative A2b, vessel owners/operators would
be required to submit completed electronic logbook reports within 7
days of offloading all HMS. The 7-day reporting requirement would be
consistent with the status quo timing requirement for submission of
logbooks in the HMS regulations as well as with the timing requirement
for submission of commercial logbooks by SERO permit holders. Vessel
owners/operators that hold both HMS commercial limited access permits
and GARFO permits would continue to follow the 48-hour eVTR submission
requirement for GARFO permit holders. While NMFS would continue to
encourage vessel owners/operators to complete logbooks as soon as
possible in communications, removing the 48-hour logbook information
entry requirement from the regulations would simplify reporting by
having a single deadline to complete and submit HMS logbook reports,
and would also better match current practices of vessel owners/
operators. However, removing this requirement could discourage timely
recording of trip details in the logbook, and thus increase recall bias
and degrade data accuracy, and thus we encourage vessel owners/
operators to complete this information as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, requiring logbook submission on a longer timeframe gives
more flexibility to vessel owners/operators to complete reports when
they have the opportunity. A longer timeframe also allows vessel owner/
operators time to receive information they may need from dealers or
others, for example, weighout slips. Giving a longer timeframe for
submission also allows vessel owners/operators time to seek assistance
they may need in completing their logbooks, for example, from customer
service associated with electronic logbooks, or language assistance
from community groups (e.g., Vietnamese and Spanish community groups).
Under Sub-alternative A2c, vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit logbook reports within 48 hours of offloading all
HMS, including the cost-earnings portion of the logbook for selected
vessel owners. This requirement to submit logbook reports within 48
hours would be consistent with the timing requirement for submission of
eVTRs by GARFO permit holders (although eVTRs must be completed to the
extent possible prior to entering port) but would be more restrictive
than the requirement for SERO permit holders. Requiring logbook
submission on a shorter timeframe allows for NMFS to receive and
analyze data in a timely manner. In addition, it could improve data
quality and accuracy by reducing recall bias, improving stakeholder
confidence, and reducing uncertainty associated with these data when
used in science or management applications. However, this alternative
is more restrictive than the status quo and preferred alternative, so
it provides HMS vessel owners/operators less flexibility in reporting,
reduces the time they have to get assistance with reporting, and
therefore could be more costly for some small businesses.
Under Sub-alternative A2d, vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit logbook reports within 24 hours of offloading all
HMS, including the cost-earnings portion of the logbook for selected
vessel owners. This alternative is consistent with the catch reporting
requirements we have for our open access tuna handgear permits that
interact with bluefin tuna commercially. This requirement to submit
logbook entries within 24 hours would be consistent with preferred Sub-
alternative B2a for timing of logbook submission by vessel owner/
operators with HMS open access commercial permits (i.e., Atlantic Tunas
General or Harpoon category and Swordfish General Commercial) or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits. The impacts of this

[[Page 72811]]

alternative are similar to Sub-alternative A2c but is even more
restrictive with its shorter time frame for reporting making it very
difficult for HMS vessel owners/operators to seek assistance for
electronic reporting or to deal with unexpected circumstances that
might result in minor delays in reporting. This alternative is more
restrictive than Sub-alternative A2c, and therefore, could be more
costly for some small businesses.

B. Electronic Logbook for Atlantic Tunas General Category Permit,
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon Category Permit, Swordfish General Commercial
Permit, and HMS Charter/Headboat Permit

NMFS is considering three suites of alternatives regarding
implementation of an electronic logbook requirement for vessel owners/
operators that hold certain HMS commercial open access permits and/or
HMS Charter/Headboat permit. The commercial open access permits
referenced under these alternatives are the Atlantic Tunas General
category permit, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permit, and Swordfish
General Commercial permit. Alternative B1 addresses electronic logbook
requirements for these permit categories. Alternative B2 addresses the
timing requirement for electronic logbook submission. Alternative B3
addresses cost and earnings information. Sub-alternatives under these
alternatives are described below.

Alternative B1. Electronic Logbook Requirements

Sub-alternative B1a is the status quo alternative for catch
reporting for these permits. NMFS would maintain existing electronic
catch reporting for vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas General
and Harpoon category permits through an electronic system/application
approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting or reporting via telephone.
NMFS would require reporting of bluefin tuna landings and dead discards
only, and vessel owners/operators would only report on trips where
bluefin tuna are caught. NMFS would also maintain existing electronic
reporting for owners/operators of HMS Charter/Headboat permitted
vessels through an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for
Atlantic HMS reporting, reporting via telephone, or by other means as
specified by NMFS. Owners/operators of HMS Charter/Headboat permitted
vessels would report all bluefin tuna landings and dead discards, all
non-tournament landings of Atlantic blue marlin, Atlantic white marlin,
roundscale spearfish, and Atlantic sailfish, and all non-tournament and
non-commercial landings of North Atlantic swordfish. The status quo
would maintain consistency with current requirements and maintain the
current business practices of vessel owners/operators. It would
continue to allow timely inseason quota management, particularly for
bluefin tuna and billfish. NMFS would continue to allow landings to be
phoned in, and retaining telephone reporting would continue the
administrative time and cost to the Agency of receiving and returning
phone calls and voicemails.
Sub-alternative B1b would be the same as Sub-alternative B1a with
the exception of removing the option to report via telephone. Removing
telephone reporting would impact a small number of businesses that own
or operate vessels with Atlantic Tunas General category, Harpoon
category, Swordfish General Commercial, or HMS Charter/Headboat permits
that have become accustomed to reporting via telephone might have some
minor costs associated with switching to another reporting method. In
2022, less than 7 percent of reports (i.e., 433 reports) came in via
telephone or email, the remaining 93 percent (i.e., 5,837 reports) were
reported electronically via either eTRIPS, the HMS Permits website, or
the HMS Catch Reporting smartphone application.
Under preferred Sub-alternative B1c, NMFS would expand species and
trip reporting requirements via electronic logbook for vessel owners/
operators with Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon
category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat
permits. Electronic logbook reporting under preferred Sub-alternative
B1c would be for all trips, including trips taken by an Atlantic Tunas
General category, Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/
Headboat permitted vessel when participating in a tournament. Vessel
owners/operators would indicate in the logbook which trips were
associated with a tournament. Implementation of a logbook program would
place added burden on vessel owners/operators. The requirement to
report on all trips, regardless of whether fish were caught, and to
report all species, would be consistent with the current commercial
Atlantic HMS logbook and with requirements for GARFO commercial and
for-hire permit holders and SERO South Atlantic for-hire permit
holders. The requirement to submit no-fishing reports on a monthly
basis for months in which no fishing activity took place would be
similar to the commercial Atlantic HMS logbook.

Alternative B2. Timing Requirement for Electronic Logbook Submission

[[Page 72812]]

vessel owners/operators would be required to submit completed
electronic logbooks within 48 hours of the end of a trip. Sub-
alternative B2c would maintain the important data stream for inseason
management of bluefin tuna category quotas and subquotas, while
allowing additional time for vessel owners/operators to report on non-
bluefin tuna trips. However, this sub-alternative would complicate the
reporting regulations. The 48-hour reporting requirement would be
consistent with the reporting requirement for GARFO commercial and for-
hire permit holders but would be more restrictive than the requirement
for SERO South Atlantic for-hire permit holders.
Under Sub-alternative B2d, for trips with bluefin tuna landings or
dead discards, vessel owners/operators would be required to submit
completed electronic logbooks within 24 hours of the end of a trip. For
trips with no bluefin tuna landings or dead discards, vessel owners/
operators would be required to submit completed electronic logbooks
within 7 days of the end of a trip. This sub-alternative would maintain
the important data stream for inseason management of bluefin tuna
category quotas and subquotas, while allowing a substantial amount of
additional time for vessel owners/operators to report on non-bluefin
tuna trips. However, this sub-alternative would complicate the
reporting regulations. The 7-day reporting requirement would mirror
requirements for SERO South Atlantic for-hire permit holders, but
vessel owners/operators that hold both HMS commercial open access or
Charter/Headboat permits and GARFO permits would continue to follow the
48-hour reporting requirement for GARFO permit holders.

Alternative B3. Cost and Earnings Information

Sub-alternative B3a is the status quo alternative for collection of
cost and earnings information. This status quo requirement to report in
logbooks, including completion of the cost-earnings portion, although
in the regulations, has not been exercised by NMFS on a regular basis
for vessel owners with open access commercial or HMS charter/headboat
permits.
Under Sub-alternative B3b, vessel owners/operators with Atlantic
Tunas General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category, Swordfish
General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permits selected by
NMFS for a given calendar year would submit cost and earnings
information only via an annual survey, rather than through post-trip
logbook submissions. Particularly for the for-hire industry, because it
is relatively consistent in trip duration, fishing location, and target
species, a survey that collects data on annual expenses and average
trip costs and earnings could be sufficient to characterize the
economic impacts of for-hire fishing while minimizing duplicative
reporting on charter/headboat owners/operators. However, collecting
cost-earnings data from only a portion of permitted vessels would not
provide as complete economic data as if all vessel owners/operators are
reporting. Vessel owners/operators with Federal for-hire permits in the
South Atlantic, in addition to an HMS Charter/Headboat permit, would
need to report cost and earnings information for all trips following
the South Atlantic requirements.
Under preferred Sub-alternative B3c, all vessel owners/operators
with Atlantic Tunas General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category,
Swordfish General Commercial, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permits would
submit cost and earnings information for each trip through the
completion of a cost-earnings portion in the electronic logbook. This
requirement would follow the timing implemented under Alternative B2 in
order to maintain one timeline for reporting and facilitate compliance
monitoring. Vessel owners/operators selected by NMFS for a given
calendar year would submit additional cost and earnings information via
an annual survey. Reporting cost and earnings information on all trips
would be consistent with the electronic reporting requirements for
vessel owner/operators with Federal for-hire permits in the South
Atlantic. However, if preferred Sub-alternative B2a is implemented,
collecting cost and earnings information for each trip would add to the
information that vessel owners/operators would need to report within 24
hours after a trip.

C. HMS Angling Permit Reporting Requirements

NMFS is considering four alternatives (C1, C2, C3, and C4)
regarding reporting requirements for vessel owners with an HMS Angling
permit, as listed below. HMS Angling permit holders are considered
individuals and not small entities under RFA. Alternative C1 is the
status quo alternative for reporting by vessel owners with HMS Angling
permits under which vessel owners would be required to report all
bluefin tuna, billfish, and swordfish landings and bluefin tuna dead
discards. These catch reports can be submitted through an electronic
system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting
(currently, the HMS Permits website or the HMS Catch Reporting
smartphone application), a telephone number designated by NMFS, or by
other means as specified by NMFS. Alternative C2, the preferred
alternative, removes the option for HMS Angling permit holders to
report via telephone. Alternative C3 would require the owner of an HMS
Angling permitted vessel to report all pelagic shark landings in
addition to the current species reporting requirements under the status
quo. Finally, Alternative C4 would require the owner of an HMS Angling
permitted vessel to report all BAYS tunas landings in addition to the
species reporting requirements under the status quo. None of these
alternatives would have direct economic impacts on small entities since
these alternatives only impact vessel owners with an HMS Angling
permit.

D. HMS Dealer Reporting: Individual Fish Reports and Technical Change
in Bluefin Tuna Reporting Requirements

NMFS is considering four alternatives (D1, D2, D3, and D4)
regarding individual fish reports by HMS dealers and/or bluefin tuna
reporting requirements, with two alternatives preferred. NMFS considers
all HMS dealers to be considered small entities, therefore these four
alternatives are detailed here along with the economic impacts of those
alternatives on the HMS dealers.

Alternative D1. Status Quo

Alternative D1 is the status quo alternative for Federal HMS dealer
reporting. Currently, dealers are required to report individual fish
weights for bluefin tuna. For other species (i.e., swordfish, BAYS
tunas, sharks), dealers may report individual fish weights or they may
report an aggregate weight for a given species. Currently, dealers with
Atlantic tunas dealer permits must also submit a complete bi-weekly
report on forms available from NMFS for bluefin tuna received from U.S.
vessels. The status quo would maintain consistency with current
requirements and maintain the current business practices of dealers.
Under the status quo, dealers have flexibility to report according to
their business practices, so some reports are at the individual fish
level and some reports are at the aggregate weight level for fish that
are all of the same species, quality, and price. The status quo would
also maintain a duplicative reporting requirement for bluefin tuna bi-
weekly reports. There would be no change in

[[Page 72813]]

economic impact to the HMS dealer small businesses.

Alternative D2. Expand Individual Fish Reports to Bays Tunas,
Swordfish, and Pelagic Sharks

Alternative D2, a preferred alternative, expands individual fish
reports to BAYS tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks (i.e., blue,
porbeagle, common thresher, and, if and when allowed, shortfin mako
sharks). Currently, HMS dealers are required to report individual fish
weights for bluefin tuna but have the option to report aggregate
weights for all other HMS-managed species. NMFS estimates 500 HMS
dealers would submit 26 electronic landings reports per year taking an
estimated 1 hour on average per report for 26 hours of total burden per
reporter or $735 in labor costs per year per respondent. An additional
40 HMS dealers that use a ``file upload'' model of reporting would be
estimated to submit 45 landings reports per year taking an estimated 2
hours on average per report for 90 hours per year per respondent or
$2,545 in labor costs per year per respondent. These estimates include
the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing
the collection of information.

Alternative D3. Expand Individual Fish Reports Only When Buying Fish
From Vessels That Do Not Submit Weighout Slips

Alternative D3 would expand individual fish reports only when
buying fish from vessels that do not submit weighout slips. Dealers
buying fish landed from vessels whose owners/operators are submitting
weighout slips with their logbook reporting (i.e., owners/operators
that report in the Atlantic HMS logbook, or that would report in the
SEFSC Commercial Electronic Logbook under preferred Sub-alternative
A1b) would not be required to report swordfish, BAYS tunas, and pelagic
shark species individually on Federal dealer reports. Dealers would
only be required to report these species individually when buying fish
landed from vessels whose owner/operators do not submit weighout slips
(i.e., owners/operators of vessels with an Atlantic Tunas General
category permit, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permit, Swordfish
General Commercial permit, and/or HMS Charter/Headboat permit).
This alternative would reduce the number of reports in which
dealers had to report individual fish weights, while also receiving
individual fish weight information from dealer reports that would not
correspond with similar information on weighout slips. However, under
this alternative, the Agency would need to maintain the weighout slip
requirement for vessel owners/operators reporting in the SEFSC
Commercial Electronic Logbook under preferred Sub-alternative A1b.

Alternative D4. Remove the Requirement To Submit a Bi-Weekly Report for
Bluefin Tuna

Alternative D4, a preferred alternative, would remove the
requirement for dealers to submit bi-weekly landing and trade reports
for bluefin tuna. The information submitted via bi-weekly report is
already collected under other bluefin tuna reporting requirements at
Sec. 635.5(b)(2)(i)(A). This preferred alternative would reduce the
reporting burden for Atlantic tunas dealers and administrative burden
on NMFS. It is estimated the elimination of the bi-weekly reports would
reduce bluefin tuna dealer reporting burden by approximately 15 minutes
per report and it is estimated that on average each permitted dealer
submitted one report per year.
In this action, NMFS has considered the significant alternatives to
the proposed rule and focused on modernizing and consolidating
reporting requirements for HMS permit holders in order to minimize any
significant economic impact of the proposed rule on small entities. The
expansion of reporting requirements would create consistency with NMFS
efforts in other fisheries and augment data necessary for fishery
science and management. In this IRFA, NMFS analyzed reporting burden
and associated labor costs, as these are the only economic costs
anticipated to be incurred under the proposed changes in reporting
requirements. There is no requirement to purchase any specialized
equipment, as the approved electronic reporting systems/applications
could be accessed on any desktop computer, smartphone, or other device,
which are considered to be standard business costs. For vessel owners/
operators with HMS commercial limited access permits, the preferred
alternatives would complete and submit logbook reports electronically,
and rather than mailing in the weighout slips, they would be submitted
electronically with the logbook as an uploaded file. Electronic logbook
reports would need to be submitted within 7 days of offloading all HMS.
NMFS estimates that after an initial period of adjustment of business
practices needed to go from a paper to an electronic format, the number
of reports and time needed to complete the reports will remain similar
to the status quo. For vessel owners/operators with Atlantic Tunas
General category, Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category, Swordfish General
Commercial, or HMS Charter/Headboat permits, the preferred alternatives
would expand species and trip reporting requirements via electronic
logbook to report on all trips, regardless of whether fish were caught,
and to report all species. Electronic logbook reports would need to be
submitted within 24 hours of the end of a trip. All vessel owners/
operators would submit cost and earnings information for each trip
through the completion of a cost-earnings portion in the electronic
logbook, and vessel owners/operators selected by NMFS for a given
calendar year would submit additional cost and earnings information via
an annual survey. Taken together, the preferred alternatives would
increase the reporting burden for these vessel owners/operators with
HMS open access permits, compared to the status quo catch reporting
requirements. For HMS dealers, the preferred alternatives would expand
individual fish weights in dealer reports to BAYS tunas, swordfish, and
pelagic sharks, as well as remove the requirement for dealers to submit
bi-weekly landing and trade reports for bluefin tuna. Requiring
reporting of additional individual fish weights would increase the
burden and labor costs on HMS dealers, while removing the bi-weekly
reporting requirement would result in a small reduction in burden. NMFS
is also proposing changes to reporting for vessel owners with HMS
Angling permits; however, this change would not have direct economic
impacts on small entities and, therefore, was not analyzed under this
IRFA.

Paperwork Reduction Act

This proposed rule contains collection-of-information requirements
subject to review and approval by OMB under the PRA (44 U.S.C.
3507(d)). This rule would revise the existing requirements for three
collections of information, including OMB Control Numbers 0648-0371
``Highly Migratory Species Vessel Logbooks and Cost-Earnings Data
Reports,'' 0648-0040 ``Highly Migratory Species Dealer Reporting Family
of Forms,'' and 0648-0328 ``Atlantic Highly Migratory Species
Recreational Landings and Bluefin Tuna Catch Reports.''
This proposed rule would revise and extend the existing
requirements under OMB Control Number 0648-0371, ``Highly Migratory
Species Vessel

[[Page 72814]]

Logbooks and Cost-Earnings Data Reports,'' for owners/operators of
vessels with HMS commercial limited access permits (i.e., Atlantic
Tunas Longline category, shark directed, shark incidental, swordfish
directed, swordfish incidental, and swordfish handgear) to complete and
submit logbook reports electronically under the SEFSC Commercial
Electronic Logbook through an electronic system/application approved by
NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting, where previously they have been
required to submit a paper-based logbook. Additionally, rather than
mailing in paper weighout slips, vessel owners/operators would be
required to submit them electronically with the logbook as an uploaded
file. NMFS would develop an optional standardized weighout slip form,
which could be completed by HMS dealers for the vessel owners/
operators.
We estimate 225 vessel owners/operators with HMS limited access
permits would complete 45 electronic trip/set reports, and 5 no-
fishing/no catch reports each year with no additional recordkeeping or
reporting costs, excluding labor costs. These reports would take an
estimated 10 and 2 minutes to complete, respectively, for a combined
2,059 burden hours per year across the fleet. A subset of 45 vessel
owners/operators with limited access permits would be selected for
cost-earnings reporting which would require the electronic submission
of an estimated 9 trip cost-earnings reports, and 1 annual expenditure
report per year, each at an estimated 30 minutes to complete for a
combined 206 burden hours per year. Finally, we estimate a maximum of
540 HMS dealers would use the optional form provided by NMFS to
generate 5 vessel weighout slips per year to be submitted by vessel
owners/operators with electronic logbook requirements. The completion
of these weighout slip forms would take an estimated 1 hour each on
average for an estimated total of 2,700 burden hours per year. These
estimates include the time for reviewing instructions, searching
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and
completing and reviewing the collection of information.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend the existing
logbook reporting requirements under OMB Control Number 0648-0371,
``Highly Migratory Species Vessel Logbooks and Cost-Earnings Data
Reports,'' for vessel owners/operators with open access Atlantic Tunas
and Swordfish permits, including the Atlantic Tunas General or Harpoon
category, Swordfish General Commercial, and HMS Charter/Headboat
permits. Currently, these individuals are only required to maintain and
submit paper logbook reports if selected to report in the Atlantic HMS
logbook. Under this proposed rule, these permit holders would be
required to report all trips, regardless of target species or whether
fish were caught, through an electronic logbook system/application
approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting. Each trip report would
also include trip-level cost-earnings reporting, and no-fishing reports
would be required on a monthly basis for months in which no fishing
activity took place. A sub-sample of permit holders would also be
selected to complete an annual expenditure report. We estimate 7,043
vessel owners with open access Atlantic tunas, swordfish, or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits would complete on average 46 trip reports and
4 no-fishing reports each year with no additional recordkeeping of
reporting costs, excluding labor costs. These reports would take an
estimated 10 and 2 minutes to complete, respectively, for a combined
65,420 burden hours per year across the fleet. A subset of 1,409 vessel
owners would be selected to complete an annual expenditure report at an
estimated 30 minutes to complete for an additional 704 burden hours per
year. These estimates include the time for reviewing instructions,
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend reporting
requirements under OMB Control Number 0648-0328, ``Atlantic Highly
Migratory Species Recreational Landings and Bluefin Tuna Catch
Reports.'' Currently, HMS Angling, HMS Charter/Headboat, and Atlantic
Tunas General and Harpoon category permit holders are required to
submit catch reports for bluefin tuna, billfish, and swordfish within
24 hours of landing them. There are several options for submitting
these reports, including via an online reporting portal on the HMS
Permits website, an HMS Catch Reporting mobile application, designated
for-hire electronic logbook applications, two State HMS catch card
programs, and a toll-free phone line. Changes to OMB Control Number
0648-0328, ``Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Recreational Landings
and Bluefin Tuna Catch Reports,'' to align with the proposed rule would
eliminate the option to report via toll-free phone line, while
continuing to allow reporting via the other reporting options. It is
estimated that this change would have no impact on estimated reporting
burden, as each method has the same estimated burden per response.
This proposed rule would also revise and extend reporting
requirements under OMB Control Number 0648-0040, ``Highly Migratory
Species Dealer Reporting Family of Forms'', for federally permitted HMS
dealers. Currently, HMS dealers are required to report individual fish
weights for bluefin tuna but have the option to report aggregate
weights for all other HMS-managed species. This rule proposes to expand
the requirement for HMS dealers to report individual fish weights to
BAYS tunas, swordfish, and pelagic sharks (i.e., blue, porbeagle,
common thresher, and, if and when allowed, shortfin mako sharks). We
estimate 500 HMS dealers would submit 26 electronic landings reports
per year taking an estimated 1 hour on average per report for 13,000
hours of total burden. An additional 40 HMS dealers that use a ``file
upload'' model of reporting would be estimated to submit 45 landings
reports per year taking an estimated 2 hours on average per report for
3,600 total burden hours per year. Additionally, this rule proposes to
eliminate the requirement for bluefin tuna dealers to submit bi-weekly
landing and trade reports for bluefin tuna received from U.S. vessels
as the information submitted via these reports is duplicated under
other bluefin tuna reporting requirements. It is estimated that the
elimination of the bi-weekly reports would reduce Bluefin Tuna dealer
reporting burden by approximately 108 hours per year. Finally, this
rule would remove the requirement for dealers to report shark carcasses
and fins separately. This change is not anticipated to reduce the
number of expected responses and would have minimal impact on the time
to complete landings reports and total burden hours. These estimates
include the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data
sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and
reviewing the collection of information.
Public comment is sought, but is not limited to, the following
topics: (1) whether these proposed collections of information are
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Department
of Commerce, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; the accuracy of the burden estimate; (2) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (3)
ways to minimize the burden of the collections of information,
including through the

[[Page 72815]]

use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology; and (4) any other relevant information germane to this
rulemaking. Submit comments on these or any other aspects of the
collections of information at: <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is
required to respond or, nor shall any person by 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 635

Fisheries, Fishing, Fishing vessels, Foreign relations, Imports,
Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Statistics,
Treaties.

Dated: August 29, 2024.
Samuel D. Rauch, III,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine
Fisheries Service.

For the reasons set out in the preamble, NMFS proposes to amend 50
CFR part 635 as follows:

PART 635--ATLANTIC HIGHLY MIGRATORY SPECIES

0
1. The authority citation for part 635 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 971 et seq.; 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

0
2. In Sec. 635.4, revise paragraph (a)(5) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.4 Permits and fees.

* * * * *
(a) * * *
(5) Display upon offloading. Upon offloading of Atlantic HMS for
sale, the owner or operator of the harvesting vessel must present for
inspection the vessel's HMS Charter/Headboat permit with a commercial
sale endorsement; Atlantic tunas, shark, or swordfish permit;
Incidental HMS squid trawl; HMS Commercial Caribbean Small Boat permit;
and/or the shark research permit to the first receiver. The permit(s)
must be presented prior to completing any applicable report specified
at Sec. 635.5(a)(2) through (4), (b)(1)(i), and (b)(2)(i).
* * * * *
0
3. In Sec. 635.5, revise paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) to read as
follows:

Sec. 635.5 Recordkeeping and reporting.

* * * * *
(a) Commercial vessel, charter boat, and headboat owners--(1)
Responsibilities. The owner of a vessel may allow the vessel operator
or another person to submit all required reports as described below.
However, the owner of the vessel is responsible for ensuring that all
reports are submitted in a timely and accurate manner.
(2) Logbook reporting. The owner of any vessel that has been issued
or is required to be issued one of the permits described in paragraphs
(a)(2)(i) and (a)(2)(ii) of this section must submit logbook reports
through an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic
HMS reporting. Logbook reports must include entries regarding the
vessel's fishing effort, the number of fish caught, and the disposition
of the catch. A complete electronic logbook report must be submitted
after each trip (including tournament trips), regardless of whether the
vessel was targeting HMS, according to the timing described below:
(i) The owner of a vessel that has been issued or should have been
issued an Atlantic Tunas Longline category permit (see Sec. 635.4(d)),
shark directed LAP (see Sec. 635.4(e)), shark incidental LAP (see
Sec. 635.4(e)), swordfish directed LAP (see Sec. 635.4(f)), swordfish
incidental LAP (see Sec. 635.4(f)), or swordfish handgear LAP (see
Sec. 635.4(f)) must submit an electronic logbook report within 7 days
of offloading all Atlantic HMS. If no fishing occurred during a
calendar month, the vessel owner must submit an electronic no-fishing
report no later than 7 days after the end of that month.
(ii) The owner of a vessel that has been issued or should have been
issued an Atlantic Tunas General category permit (see Sec. 635.4(d)),
Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permit (see Sec. 635.4(d)), Swordfish
General Commercial permit (see Sec. 635.4(f)), or HMS Charter/Headboat
permit (see Sec. 635.4(b)) must submit an electronic logbook report
within 24 hours of the end of the trip (including tournament trips). If
no fishing occurred during a calendar month, the vessel owner must
submit an electronic no-fishing report no later than 7 days after the
end of that month.
(3) Cost-earnings portion of the logbook. The following
requirements regarding the cost-earnings portion of the logbook(s)
apply to the owner of a vessel that reports under paragraphs (a)(2)(i)
or (ii) of this section:
(i) If an owner of a vessel issued a LAP is selected in writing by
NMFS to complete the cost-earnings portion of the logbook, for each
trip fishing for Atlantic HMS during that calendar year, the vessel
owner must submit the cost-earnings portion according to the timing
specified under paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section. The vessel owner
must also submit the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Annual
Expenditures form(s) no later than the date specified on the form of
the following year.
(ii) Owners of vessels issued commercial open access permits or HMS
Charter/Headboat permits that report under paragraph (a)(2)(ii) of this
section must complete the cost-earnings portion of the logbook and
submit the logbook according to the timing specified under paragraph
(a)(2)(ii) of this section.
(iii) If an owner of a vessel issued a commercial open access
permit or HMS Charter/Headboat permit is selected in writing by NMFS to
complete the Annual Expenditures form, the form must be submitted no
later than the date specified on the form of the following year.
(4) Weighout slips. The owner of a vessel that reports under
paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section must submit electronically, along
with the electronic logbook report, a weighout slip for all Atlantic
HMS sold. Each weighout slip must report the dealer to whom the fish
were transferred and the date they were transferred. Each weighout slip
must also report the carcass weight of each BFT, BAYS tuna, and
swordfish, and shark listed under heading C of Table 1 of appendix A to
this part. For sharks listed under headings A and B of Table 1 of
appendix A to this part, the weighout slip must report either total
weights by species and market category, or carcass weights of each
shark.
(5) BFT landed by a commercial vessel and not sold. If a person who
catches and lands a large medium or giant BFT from a vessel issued a
permit in any of the commercial categories for Atlantic tunas does not
sell or otherwise transfer the BFT to a dealer who has a dealer permit
for Atlantic tunas, the person must contact a NMFS enforcement agent,
as instructed by NMFS, immediately upon landing such BFT, provide the
information needed for the reports required under paragraph (b)(2)(i)
of this section, and, if requested, make the tuna available so that a
NMFS enforcement agent or authorized officer may inspect the fish and
attach a tag to it. Alternatively, such reporting requirement may be
fulfilled if a dealer who has a dealer permit for Atlantic tunas
affixes a dealer tag as required under paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of this
section and reports the BFT as being landed but not sold on the reports
required under paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section. If a vessel is
placed on a trailer, the person must contact a NMFS enforcement agent,
or the BFT must have a dealer tag affixed to it by a permitted Atlantic
tunas dealer, immediately upon the

[[Page 72816]]

vessel being removed from the water. All BFT landed but not sold will
be accounted against the quota category according to the permit
category of the vessel from which it was landed.
(6) VMS and IBQ requirements. In addition to the reporting
requirements described in this section, the owners or operators of
vessels are subject to applicable VMS reporting requirements under
Sec. 635.69, and IBQ Program requirements under Sec. 635.15.
(b) Dealers. Persons who have been issued a dealer permit under
Sec. 635.4 must report as follows:
(1) Requirements for Atlantic HMS other than BFT. (i) Dealers that
have been issued or should have been issued a Federal dealer permit
under Sec. 635.4 and who first receive BAYS, swordfish, and/or sharks
must submit to NMFS all reports required under this section within the
timeframe specified under paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section. BAYS,
swordfish, and sharks commercially harvested by a vessel can only be
first received by dealers that have been issued or should have been
issued an Atlantic tunas, swordfish, and/or shark dealer permit under
Sec. 635.4. All reports must be species-specific and must include the
required information about all BAYS, swordfish, and sharks received by
the dealer, including the required vessel information, regardless of
where the fish were harvested or whether the harvesting vessel is
permitted under Sec. 635.4. For BAYS, swordfish, and pelagic sharks
(under heading C of table 1 of appendix A to this part), the report
must specify the weight of each carcass. For other shark species (under
headings A, B, and E of table 1 of appendix A to this part), the report
must include either total weights by species and market category, or
carcass weights of each shark. The dealer must inspect the vessel's
permit to verify that it is a commercial category, that the required
vessel name and vessel number (i.e., U.S. Coast Guard documentation or
State registration) as listed on the permit are correctly recorded in
the dealer report, and that the vessel permit has not expired. Dealers
are also required to submit ``negative'' reports, as specified under
paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section. As stated in Sec. 635.4(a)(6),
failure to comply with these recordkeeping and reporting requirements
may result in existing dealer permit(s) being revoked, suspended, or
modified, and in the denial of any permit applications.
(ii) Reports of any BAYS, sharks, and/or swordfish first received
by dealers from a vessel must be submitted on a weekly basis through an
electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS
reporting. Each report must be received by NMFS no later than 0000,
local time, of the first Tuesday following the end of the reporting
week unless the dealer is otherwise notified by NMFS. Reports of BAYS,
sharks, and/or swordfish may be modified for not more than 120 days
from when the dealer report is submitted to NMFS. If the dealer did not
first receive any species during the reporting week, the dealer must
submit a negative report through an electronic system/application
approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting indicating no receipt of
any species. This negative report must be received by NMFS no later
than 0000, local time, of the first Tuesday following the end of the
reporting week unless the dealer is otherwise notified by NMFS.
(iii) Atlantic HMS dealers are not authorized to first receive
Atlantic swordfish, sharks, and/or BAYS if the required reports have
not been submitted and received by NMFS according to reporting
requirements under this section. Delinquent reports automatically
result in an Atlantic HMS dealer becoming ineligible to first receive
Atlantic swordfish, sharks, and/or BAYS. Atlantic HMS dealers who
become ineligible to first receive Atlantic swordfish, sharks, and/or
BAYS due to delinquent reports are authorized to first receive Atlantic
swordfish, sharks, and/or BAYS only once all required and delinquent
reports have been completed, submitted by the dealer, and received by
NMFS.
(2) Requirements for BFT. (i) Landing reports. Each dealer with a
valid Atlantic tunas dealer permit issued under Sec. 635.4 must submit
an electronic landing report to NMFS for each BFT received from a U.S.
fishing vessel. Such reports must be submitted as instructed by NMFS
not later than 24 hours after receipt of the BFT. Landing reports must
include the name and permit number of the vessel that landed the BFT
and other information regarding the catch as instructed by NMFS. When
purchasing BFT from eligible IBQ Program participants, permitted
Atlantic tunas dealers must enter landing reports into the Catch Shares
Online System established under Sec. 635.15, not later than 24 hours
after receipt of the BFT. The dealer must inspect the vessel's permit
to verify that it is a commercial category, that the required vessel
name and vessel number (i.e., U.S. Coast Guard documentation or State
registration) as listed on the permit are correctly recorded in the
landing report, and that the vessel permit has not expired.
(ii) Dealer tags. NMFS will issue numbered dealer tags to each
dealer issued an Atlantic tunas dealer permit under Sec. 635.4. A
dealer tag is not transferable and is usable only by the dealer to whom
it is issued. Dealer tags may not be reused once affixed to a tuna or
recorded on a package, container, or report.
(A) Affixing dealer tags. A dealer or a dealer's agent must affix a
dealer tag to each BFT purchased or first received from a U.S. vessel
immediately upon offloading the BFT. A dealer's agent is a person who
is currently employed by a place of business covered by the dealer's
permit; is a primary participant in the identification, weighing, and/
or first receipt of fish as they are received; and fills out dealer
reports as required under Sec. 635.5. If a vessel is placed on a
trailer, the dealer or dealer's agent must affix the dealer tag to the
BFT immediately upon the vessel being removed from the water. The
dealer tag must be affixed to the BFT between the fifth dorsal finlet
and the caudal keel. Regardless of when the BFT was landed, on an RFD
(as specified at Sec. 635.23(a)), no dealer or dealer's agent shall
purchase, first receive, or affix a dealer tag to a BFT that is on or
from a vessel that has an Atlantic Tunas General category permit or HMS
Charter/Headboat permit with a commercial sale endorsement.
(B) Removal of dealer tags. A dealer tag affixed to any BFT under
paragraph (b)(2)(ii)(A) of this section or a BSD tag affixed to an
imported BFT must remain on the fish until it is cut into portions. If
the BFT or BFT parts subsequently are packaged for transport for
domestic commercial use or for export, the number of the dealer tag or
the BSD tag must be written legibly and indelibly on the outside of any
package containing the tuna. Such tag number also must be recorded on
any document accompanying the shipment of BFT for commercial use or
export.
(iii) Reporting in the IBQ Program. Dealers must comply with dealer
requirements related to the IBQ Program under Sec. 635.15(f)(3)(iii).
(3) Recordkeeping. Dealers must retain at their place of business a
copy of each report required under paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) of this
section for a period of 2 years from the date on which each report was
required to be submitted.
(c) Vessel owners with HMS Angling permits. All BFT, billfish, and
North Atlantic swordfish non-tournament landings must be reported as
specified under paragraphs (c)(1) or (c)(2) of this section, unless an
alternative recreational catch reporting system has

[[Page 72817]]

been established as specified under paragraph (c)(3) of this section.
Landing reports submitted to NMFS are not complete unless the vessel
owner, or the owner's designee, has received a confirmation number or a
unique identifier for the report (e.g., a vessel trip report number)
generated by the reporting system. Tournament landings of all HMS must
be reported as specified under paragraph (d) of this section.
(1) Bluefin tuna. The owner of a vessel issued or required to be
issued an HMS Angling permit under Sec. 635.4 must report the catch of
all BFT discarded dead and/or retained under the Angling category quota
designated at Sec. 635.27(a) through an electronic system/application
approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS reporting within 24 hours of the
landing.
(2) Billfish and swordfish. The owner of a vessel issued or
required to be issued an HMS Angling permit must report all non-
tournament landings of Atlantic blue marlin, Atlantic white marlin,
roundscale spearfish, Atlantic sailfish, and North Atlantic swordfish
to NMFS through an electronic system/application approved by NMFS for
Atlantic HMS reporting within 24 hours of that landing.
(3) Alternative recreational catch reporting. As an alternative to
the reporting requirements in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this
section, recreational catch reporting procedures may be established by
NMFS with cooperation from States which may include such methodologies
as telephone, dockside or mail surveys, mail in or phone-in reports,
electronic reporting, tagging programs, catch cards, or mandatory
check-in stations. A census or a statistical sample of persons fishing
under the recreational fishing regulations of this part may be used for
these alternative reporting programs (after the programs have received
Paperwork Reduction Act approval from OMB). Persons or vessel owners
selected for reporting will be notified by NMFS or by the cooperating
State agency of the requirements and procedures for reporting
recreational catch. Each person so notified must comply with those
requirements and procedures. Additionally, NMFS may determine that
recreational landing reporting systems implemented by the States, if
mandatory, at least as restrictive, and effectively enforced, are
sufficient for recreational landing monitoring as required under this
part. In such case, NMFS will file with the Office of the Federal
Register for publication notification indicating that compliance with
the State system satisfies the reporting requirements of paragraph (c)
of this section.
* * * * *
0
4. In Sec. 635.15, revise paragraph (f)(3)(iii) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.15 Individual bluefin tuna quotas (IBQs).

* * * * *
(f) * * *
(3) * * *
(iii) End-of-year IBQ transactions by dealers. Federal Atlantic
tunas dealer permit holders must comply with reporting requirements at
Sec. 635.5(b)(2)(i). No IBQ transactions will be processed between 6
p.m. eastern time on December 31 and 2 p.m. Eastern Time on January 1
of each year to provide NMFS time to reconcile IBQ accounts and update
IBQ shares and allocations for the upcoming fishing year.
* * * * *
0
5. In Sec. 635.30, revise paragraph (c)(3) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.30 Possession at sea and landing.

* * * * *
(c) * * *
(3) Once landed and offloaded, sharks that have been halved,
quartered, filleted, cut up, or reduced in any manner may not be
brought back on board a vessel that has been or should have been issued
a Federal Atlantic commercial shark permit.
* * * * *
0
6. In Sec. 635.31, revise paragraphs (a)(1). (a)(2)(ii), (c)(4), and
(d)(2) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.31 Restrictions on sale and purchase.

(a) * * *
(1) A person who owns or operates a vessel from which an Atlantic
tuna is landed or offloaded may sell such Atlantic tuna only if that
vessel has a valid HMS Charter/Headboat permit with a commercial sale
endorsement; a valid Atlantic Tunas General, Harpoon, Longline, or Trap
category permit; or a valid HMS Commercial Caribbean Small Boat permit
issued under this part and the appropriate category has not been closed
as specified at Sec. 635.28(a). No person may sell a BFT smaller than
the large medium size class. No large medium or giant BFT may be sold
if caught by a person aboard a vessel with an Atlantic HMS Charter/
Headboat permit fishing in the Gulf of Mexico at any time or outside
the Gulf of Mexico when the General category fishery has been closed
(see Sec. 635.23(c)). A person may sell Atlantic BFT only to a dealer
that has a valid permit for purchasing Atlantic tunas issued under this
part. A person may not sell or purchase Atlantic tunas harvested with
speargun fishing gear. A person issued an Atlantic Tunas General
category permit or HMS Charter/Headboat permit with a commercial sale
endorsement must land, sell or transfer a BFT to a dealer that has a
valid permit for purchasing Atlantic tunas no later than 0000 local
time the day prior to an RFD, as specified at Sec. 635.23(a). If that
person is unable to sell or otherwise transfer the BFT to a dealer who
has a dealer permit for Atlantic tunas no later than 0000 local time,
the person must follow the restrictions applicable to landed but not
sold BFT specified at Sec. 635.5(a)(5). In no case shall such person
possess a BFT on an RFD.
(2) * * *
(ii) Dealers may first receive BAYS tunas only if they have
submitted reports to NMFS according to reporting requirements at Sec.
635.5(b)(1)(i) and (ii), and only from a vessel that has a valid
Federal commercial permit for Atlantic tunas issued under this part in
the appropriate category. Vessel owners and operators of vessels that
have been issued an Atlantic Tunas Longline category permit can sell
BAYS tunas and dealers can purchase BAYS tunas from such vessels only
if the Longline category is open per Sec. 635.28(a). Individuals
issued a valid HMS Commercial Caribbean Small Boat permit and operating
in the U.S. Caribbean as defined at Sec. 622.2 of this chapter, may
sell their trip limits of BAYS tunas, codified at Sec. 635.24(c), to
dealers and non-dealers. Persons may only sell albacore tuna and
dealers may only first receive albacore tuna if the northern albacore
tuna fishery has not been closed as specified at Sec. 635.28(d).
* * * * *
(c) * * *
(4) Only dealers who have a valid Federal Atlantic shark dealer
permit and who have submitted reports to NMFS according to reporting
requirements of Sec. 635.5(b)(1)(i) and (ii) may first receive a shark
from an owner or operator of a vessel that has, or is required to have,
a valid Federal Atlantic commercial shark permit issued under this
part. Dealers may purchase a shark only from an owner or operator of a
vessel who has a valid commercial shark permit issued under this part,
except that dealers may purchase a shark from an owner or operator of a
vessel who does not have a Federal Atlantic commercial shark permit if
that vessel fishes exclusively in State waters and does not possess a
HMS Angling permit or HMS Charter/Headboat permit pursuant to Sec.
635.4. Atlantic shark dealers may

[[Page 72818]]

purchase a sandbar shark only from an owner or operator of a vessel who
has a valid shark research permit and who had a NMFS-approved observer
onboard the vessel for the trip in which the sandbar shark was
collected. Atlantic shark dealers may purchase a shark from an owner or
operator of a fishing vessel who has a valid commercial shark permit
issued under this part only when the fishery for that species,
management group, region, and/or sub-region has not been closed, as
specified in Sec. 635.28(b). Atlantic shark dealers may first receive
a shark from a vessel that has pelagic longline gear onboard only if
the Atlantic Tunas Longline category has not been closed, as specified
in Sec. 635.28(a).
* * * * *
(d) * * *
(2) Atlantic swordfish dealers may first receive a swordfish
harvested from the Atlantic Ocean only from an owner or operator of a
fishing vessel that has a valid commercial permit for swordfish issued
under this part, and only if the dealer has submitted reports to NMFS
according to reporting requirements of Sec. 635.5(b)(1)(i) and (ii).
Atlantic swordfish dealers may first receive a swordfish from a vessel
that has pelagic longline gear onboard only if the Atlantic Tunas
Longline category has not been closed, as specified in Sec.
635.28(a)(3).
0
7. In Sec. 635.32, revise paragraph (e) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.32 Specifically authorized activities.

* * * * *
(e) Chartering arrangements and permits--(1) Chartering
arrangements. (i) For the purposes of this section, a chartering
arrangement means any contract, agreement, or commitment between a U.S.
vessel owner and a foreign entity (e.g., government, company, person)
by which the control, use, possession, or services of a vessel are
secured, for a period of time for fishing targeting Atlantic HMS.
Chartering arrangements under this part do not include bareboat
charters under which a vessel enters into a fishing agreement with a
foreign entity, changes registration to fish under another country's
registration then, once the agreed-upon fishing is completed, reverts
back to the vessel's original registration.
(ii) Before fishing under a chartering arrangement, the owner of a
fishing vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction must apply for, and obtain,
a chartering permit as specified in paragraphs (e)(2) and (g) of this
section. If a chartering permit is obtained, the vessel owner must
submit catch information as specified in the terms and conditions of
that permit. All catches will be recorded and counted against the
applicable quota of the Contracting Party to which the chartering
foreign entity is a member and, unless otherwise provided in the
chartering permit, must be offloaded in the ports of the chartering
foreign entity or offloaded under the direct supervision of the
chartering foreign entity.
(iii) If the chartering arrangement terminates before the
expiration of the charter permit, the vessel owner must notify NMFS
immediately and in writing, upon termination of the chartering
arrangement. Such notification requirements shall also apply to
situations where the chartering arrangement is temporarily suspended
and during intermittent periods where the vessel may be fishing under
U.S. quotas for Atlantic HMS.
(2) Chartering permits. (i) For activities consistent with the
purposes of this section, and Sec. 600.745(b)(1) of this chapter, NMFS
may issue chartering permits for recordkeeping and reporting purposes.
An application for a chartering permit must include all information
required under Sec. 600.745(b)(2) of this chapter and, in addition,
written notification of: the species of fish covered by the chartering
arrangement and quota allocated to the Contracting Party of which the
chartering foreign entity is a member; duration of the arrangement;
measures adopted by the chartering Contracting Party of which the
foreign entity is a member to implement ICCAT chartering provisions;
copies of fishing licenses, permits, and/or other authorizations issued
by the chartering Contracting Party of which the foreign entity is a
member for the vessel to fish under the arrangement; a copy of the High
Seas Fishing Compliance Act Permit pursuant to 50 CFR part 300, subpart
R; documentation regarding interactions with protected resources; and
documentation regarding the legal establishment of the chartering
company. To be considered complete, an application for a chartering
permit for a vessel must include all information specified in Sec.
600.745(b)(2) of this chapter, and in paragraphs (e)(2) and (g) of this
section.
(ii) Notwithstanding the provisions of Sec. 600.745 of this
chapter and other provisions of this part, a valid chartering permit is
required to fish for, take, retain, or possess ICCAT-regulated species
under chartering arrangements as specified in paragraph (e)(1) of this
section. A valid chartering permit must be on board the harvesting
vessel, must be available when ICCAT-regulated species are landed, and
must be presented for inspection upon request of an authorized officer.
A chartering permit is valid for the duration of the chartering
arrangement or until the expiration date specified on the permit,
whichever comes first. Vessels issued a chartering permit shall not be
authorized to fish under applicable Atlantic HMS quotas or entitlements
of the United States until the chartering permit expires or is
terminated.
(iii) Charter permit holders must submit logbooks and comply with
reporting requirements as specified in Sec. 635.5. NMFS will provide
specific conditions and requirements in the chartering permit, so as to
ensure consistency, to the extent possible, with laws of foreign
countries, the 2006 Consolidated HMS FMP and its amendments, as well as
ICCAT recommendations.
(iv) Observers may be placed on board vessels issued chartering
permits as specified under Sec. 635.7.
(v) NMFS will issue a chartering permit only if it determines that
the chartering arrangement is in conformance with ICCAT's conservation
and management programs.
(vi) A vessel shall be authorized to fish under only one chartering
arrangement at a time.
(vii) All chartering permits are subject to sanctions and denials
as indicated under Sec. 635.4(a)(6).
* * * * *
0
8. In Sec. 635.71, revise paragraphs (a)(25), (41), (42), (43), and
(44), (b)(5), (6), (26), (27), (28), (29), (42), and (45), (c)(6), and
(e)(15) to read as follows:

Sec. 635.71 Prohibitions.

* * * * *
(a) * * *
(25) Dispose of fish or parts thereof or other matter in any
manner, as specified in Sec. 635.5, after any communication or signal
from an authorized officer, or after the approach of an authorized
officer.
* * * * *
(41) Fail to immediately notify NMFS upon the termination of a
chartering arrangement as specified in Sec. 635.32(e).
(42) Count chartering arrangement catches against quotas other than
those defined as the Contracting Party of which the chartering foreign
entity is a member as specified in Sec. 635.32(e).
(43) Fail to submit catch information regarding fishing activities
conducted under a chartering arrangement with a foreign entity, as
specified in Sec. 635.32(e).
(44) Offload charter arrangement catch in ports other than ports of
the

[[Page 72819]]

chartering Contracting Party of which the foreign entity is a member or
offload catch without the direct supervision of the chartering foreign
entity as specified in Sec. 635.32(e).
* * * * *
(b) * * *
(5) Fail to report a large medium or giant BFT that is not sold, as
specified in Sec. 635.5(a)(5), or fail to report a BFT that is sold
through the logbook requirement specified in Sec. 635.5(a)(2).
(6) As the owner of a vessel issued or required to be issued an HMS
Angling permit, fail to report a BFT, as specified in Sec. 635.5(c)(1)
or (c)(3).
* * * * *
(26) For any person to refuse to provide information requested by
NMFS personnel or anyone collecting information for NMFS, under an
agreement or contract, relating to the scientific monitoring or
management of Atlantic tunas, as specified in Sec. 635.5.
(27) Possess a large medium or giant BFT, after it has been landed,
that does not have a dealer tag affixed to it as specified in Sec.
635.5(b)(2), unless the BFT is not to be sold and has been reported per
the requirements specified in Sec. Sec. 635.5(a)(5) or 635.5(c).
(28) Participate in any HMS recreational fishing activity aboard a
vessel issued an Atlantic Tunas General category permit unless, as
specified at Sec. 635.4(c)(2) and (3), the vessel has registered and
paid an entry fee to, and is fishing under the rules of, a recreational
HMS fishing tournament registered as required under Sec. 635.5(d).
(29) As a dealer or dealer's agent, purchase, first receive, or
affix a dealer tag to a BFT that is on or from a vessel that has been
issued an Atlantic Tunas General category permit or HMS Charter/
Headboat permit with a commercial sale endorsement, as specified in
Sec. 635.5(b)(2), after 0000 local time on an RFD.
* * * * *
(42) Fail to report all dead discards or landings of BFT through an
electronic system/application approved by NMFS for Atlantic HMS
reporting within 24 hours of the end of the trip as specified at Sec.
635.5(a)(2).
* * * * *
(45) Fail to comply with landing report requirements, as specified
under Sec. 635.5(b)(2).
* * * * *
(c) * * *
(6) As the owner of a vessel issued or required to be issued an HMS
Angling permit, fail to report a billfish, as specified in Sec.
635.5(c)(2) or (c)(3).
* * * * *
(e) * * *
(15) As the owner of a vessel issued or required to be issued an
HMS Angling permit, fail to report a North Atlantic swordfish, as
specified in Sec. 635.5(c)(2) or (c)(3).
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2024-19892 Filed 9-5-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P

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