Notice2026-00553
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Alaska American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permits
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 14, 2026
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 9 (Wednesday, January 14, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 14, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1509-1510]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-00553]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Alaska American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permits
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register on June 16, 2025, during a 60-day comment period. This
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
[[Page 1510]]
Title: Alaska American Fisheries Act (AFA) Permits.
OMB Control Number: 0648-0393.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular submission (extension of a current
information collection).
Number of Respondents: 79 respondents.
Average Hours per Response: AFA Permit: Rebuilt, Replacement, or
Removed Vessel Application, 1 hour; Application for Transfer of Bering
Sea Chinook Salmon PSC Allocations, 1 hour; Application for AFA Inshore
Catcher Vessel Cooperative Permit, 2 hours; AFA Inshore Vessel Contract
Fishing Notification, 4 hours; Application for Approval as an Entity to
Receive Transferable Chinook Salmon PSC Allocation, 8 hours.
Total Annual Burden Hours: 246 hours.
Needs and Uses: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS),
Alaska Regional Office, is requesting extension of a currently approved
information collection that contains applications for permits and
transfers necessary for NMFS to manage the Bering Sea and Aleutian
Islands (BSAI) pollock fishery under the American Fisheries Act (AFA).
NMFS manages the BSAI pollock fishery under the authority of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C.
1801 et seq.) and the AFA (16 U.S.C. 1851). The regulations
implementing the AFA Program are at 50 CFR part 679, subpart F. The
reporting requirements at 50 CFR part 679 form the basis for this
collection of information.
The AFA was signed into law in October 1998. The purpose of the AFA
was to tighten U.S. ownership standards that had been exploited under
the Anti-reflagging Act, and to provide the BSAI pollock fleet the
opportunity to conduct their fishery in a more rational manner while
protecting non-AFA participants in the other fisheries. The AFA
established sector allocations in the BSAI pollock fishery, determined
eligible vessels and processors, allowed the formation of cooperatives,
set limits on the participation of AFA vessels in other fisheries, and
imposed special catch weighing and monitoring requirements on AFA
vessels.
Any vessel used to engage in directed fishing for a non-western
Alaska community development quota (non-CDQ) allocation of pollock in
the Bering Sea and any shoreside processor, stationary floating
processor, or mothership that receives pollock harvested in a non-CDQ
directed pollock fishery in the Bering Sea must have a valid AFA permit
on board the vessel or at the facility location at all times while non-
CDQ pollock is being harvested or processed.
Permanent AFA permits (AFA catcher vessel, AFA catcher/processor,
AFA mothership, and AFA inshore processor) for the BSAI pollock fishery
had a one-time application deadline of December 1, 2000, and were
issued with an indefinite expiration date. Therefore, except for
participants that require annual or replacement permits, all AFA
entities required to have a permit are already permitted.
The type of information collected in this collection includes
information on the applicants, transferors, transferees, permits,
vessels, and Chinook salmon PSC transfer data. This information
collection contains the following AFA permitting and transfer
requirements:
<bullet> The AFA Permit: Rebuilt, Replacement, or Removed Vessel
Application is used by an owner of an AFA vessel to notify NMFS the
vessel has been rebuilt; to request an AFA permit for a replacement
catcher vessel, catcher/processor, or mothership; or to request removal
of an AFA catcher vessel that is a member of an inshore cooperative and
assign its catch history to another vessel or vessels in the same
cooperative.
<bullet> The Application for AFA Inshore Catcher Vessel Cooperative
Permit is used annually by each AFA inshore catcher vessel cooperative
to obtain an AFA Inshore Catcher Vessel Cooperative Permit and identify
the vessels and processors that will be participating in the BSAI
pollock fishery prior to the start of each fishing year.
<bullet> The AFA Inshore Vessel Contract Fishing Notification is
used by an AFA inshore cooperative that intends to contract with a non-
member vessel to harvest a portion of the cooperative's annual pollock
allocation to notify NMFS of vessels that might be reporting with an
alternative cooperative ID.
<bullet> The Application for Approval as an Entity to Receive
Transferable Chinook Salmon Prohibited Species Catch (PSC) Allocation
is used by an entity representing the catcher/processor sector or the
mothership sector to request approval to receive transferable Chinook
salmon PSC allocations on behalf of members of the sector. Once
approved, an entity is not required to reapply for or renew its status.
Entities also use this form to update their contact and other
information related to the entity and its members.
<bullet> The Application for Transfer of Bering Sea Chinook Salmon
PSC Allocations is used by an authorized representative of the catcher/
processor sector, the mothership sector, an inshore cooperative, or a
CDQ group to transfer Chinook salmon PSC allocations to another
entity's account.
Affected Public: Individuals or households; Business or other for-
profit organizations; Not-for-profit institutions.
Frequency: Annually; As needed.
Respondent's Obligation: Required to Obtain or Retain Benefits;
Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery and Conservation Act;
American Fisheries Act.
This information collection request may be viewed at
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB
Control Number 0648-0393.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Compliance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2026-00553 Filed 1-13-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on January 14, 2026.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.