Electronic Monitoring and Vessel Monitoring Systems for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fisheries Temporary Data Collection

This is a new, temporary collection of information pursuant to Amendment 15 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) (Amendment 15) and associated rulemaking, or RIN 0648-BI10. This temporary collection, OMB Control Number 0648-0816, was created due to timing conflicts with OMB Control Number 0648-0372, which came up for renewal before publication of the final rule for Amendment 15. Once 0648-0372 is renewed and the Amendment 15 final rule information collection is approved, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will submit a request to merge this temporary collection into 0648-0372. Amendment 15 will establish two pelagic longline (PLL) monitoring areas, in which PLL vessels that are approved to fish will be required to report interactions with select bycatch species by set via their vessel monitoring system (VMS) units. Several changes were made to this information collection (ICR) from the proposed to the final rule that resulted in changes to the burden and cost estimates for this collection. Previously, NMFS had proposed to make the pelagic longline fleet responsible for covering their EM monitoring costs consistent with the NOAA Cost Allocation Policy (Procedure 04-115-02). Based in part on public comment, NMFS has decided to maintain the status quo, and continue to cover these costs, for now, for vessels fishing outside of the proposed monitoring areas. However, vessel owners would still need to pay for and arrange for video review of sets from trips that occur wholly or in part in monitoring areas. Under the proposed rule, 100 percent of sets for trips that occurred within the monitoring areas were to be reviewed, but under the final rule that sampling rate has been lowered to 50 percent. To mitigate the economic impact of this added cost to the PLL fleet, NMFS is still establishing a vendor certification process to encourage additional EM vendors to enter the market, and decrease costs through competition and by leveraging the existing infrastructure of vendors already providing video services to other fisheries. However, vessel owners would only be allowed to employ these vendors for EM monitoring and video review for trips within the monitoring areas. For trips outside of monitoring areas, where NMFS will still pay for EM monitoring, vessel owners must continue to use the government contracted EM vendor. Additionally, NMFS has increased the effort caps for pelagic longline sets conducted within the monitoring areas, based on public comments expressing concerns that the proposed caps were too low to provide the needed data to evaluate the effectiveness of closed areas. This increase in the monitoring area effort caps will result in higher burden estimates as vessel owners will be required to submit effort and catch reports via their VMS units for each set within the monitoring areas.

The latest form for Electronic Monitoring and Vessel Monitoring Systems for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fisheries Temporary Data Collection expires 2029-03-31 and can be found here.

VOR - Mailing EM hard drives for monitoring area trips

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Natural Resources - Conservation, Marine and Land Management