0648-0212 SUPPORTING STATEMENT Part A 2025-0718

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. Department of Commerce

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

Greater Atlantic Region Logbook Family of Forms

OMB Control No. 0648-0212

SUPPORTING STATEMENT PART A -

Abstract

This is a request for an extension of an approved information collection.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS’s) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO), under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (Atlantic Coastal Act), the New England Fishery Management Council (the Council), and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (the Commission) are responsible for conservation and management of marine fishery resources off the east coast. NMFS enacts complementary regulations to Council and Commission actions.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that conservation and management measures must prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery. These measures must be based on the best scientific information available. The Atlantic Coastal Act oversees coastal fishery resources that migrate, or are widely distributed, across the jurisdictional boundaries of two or more of the Atlantic States and Federal government.

The information collected using the logbook family of forms will be used by several offices of NMFS, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), the Councils and Commission, and state fishery agencies. The information is used to develop, implement, and monitor fishery management strategies. Logbook data serve as inputs for a variety of uses, including biological analyses and stock assessments, regulatory impact analyses, quota allocation selections and monitoring, economic profitability profiles, trade and import tariff decisions, allocation of grant funds among states, and analysis of ecological interactions among species. NMFS would be unable to fulfill the majority of its scientific research and fishery management missions without these data.

Justification

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. Attach a copy of the appropriate section of each statute and regulation mandating or authorizing the collection of information.

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) has responsibility for the conservation and management of marine fishery resources off the coast of the United States. The majority of this responsibility has been delegated to the Regional Fishery Management Councils (Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and New England Fishery Management Council) and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Councils develop management plans for fishery resources in New England.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that conservation and management measures must prevent over-fishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery. These measures must be based on the best scientific information available. Section 303(a)(5) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act specifically identifies the kinds of data to be collected for fishery management plans (FMPs). The GARFO obtains much of this data through its logbook family of electronic forms including vessel trip reports (VTRs), Days at Sea (DAS) reports, Daily Catch Reports, Research Set-Aside reports, and Experimental Fishing Permit (EFP) reports. All of these reports are collected electronically using VTR applications, an electronic IVR application, and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) applications.

International, federal, state, and local fishery management authorities recognize the value of the logbook family of data and use the data as a part of their management systems. Collected data is used by economists, biologists, and managers to develop, monitor, and enforce controls on fishery harvests.

VTR - Mandatory VTR reporting requirements are applied to all vessels permitted under the American lobster (Interstate American Lobster FMP), Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic chub mackerel, longfin squid, Illex squid, and butterfish fisheries (Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish FMP); Atlantic salmon (Atlantic Salmon FMP); the Atlantic sea scallop fishery (Scallop FMP); the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog fisheries (Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog FMP); the Northeast (NE) multispecies and monkfish fisheries ((NE Multispecies FMP) and (Monkfish FMP)); the summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass fisheries (Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass FMP); the Atlantic bluefish fishery (Atlantic Bluefish FMP); the Atlantic herring fishery (Atlantic Herring FMP); the spiny dogfish fishery (Spiny Dogfish FMP); the Atlantic deep-sea red crab fishery (Deep-Sea Red Crab FMP); the golden and blueline tilefish fisheries (Tilefish FMP); and the NE skate complex fisheries (Skate FMP). If a vessel is permitted in more than one of these fisheries, only one report needs to be submitted to fulfill reporting requirements for all species. VTRs are collected from all GARFO permitted vessels for all fishing trips taken regardless of waters fished or species taken. VTR data contains information characterizing effort, catch, and landings information critical to science and management and are submitted using a GARFO approved software application of the user’s choosing.

Days at Sea (DAS) Reports - DAS notification reports capture a vessel's time declared into a particular fishery and are applied to vessels in the limited access scallop, NE multispecies, and limited access monkfish fisheries. Reports are collected as a means of effort control. Vessels with limited access scallop permits are allocated a certain number of DAS to fish for scallops in specific areas managed by GARFO. NE multispecies vessels who opt to not participate in the Sector Management regime are regulated using DAS input controls. Similarly, DAS is the system used to control fishing effort in the monkfish fishery. Each limited access monkfish vessel is allocated a specific number of DAS, which determines how many days they can fish for monkfish in order to control fishing effort and manage the monkfish fishery. Monkfish permit holders who are not required to have a VMS system along with occasional scallop vessels that have elected not to fish under VMS notification requirements (at §648.10(b)) and are not participating in the Sea Scallop Access Area program (listed at §648.60), must use the FishOnline IVR system to declare the start and end of their trips. Both of these fisheries are managed under a DAS system whereby a specific number of DAS per year is allocated to monkfish\occasional scallop permit holders.

Daily Catch Reports - Daily catch reporting requirements are applied to vessels with limited access herring, limited access NE multispecies, limited access Atlantic mackerel, moratorium Longfin squid, moratorium Ilex squid, and limited access scallop permits. This reporting is necessary to monitor catch levels in a timely manner so that effort controls can be implemented before catch limits are attained.

NE Multispecies Spawning and Gillnet Blocks - NE multispecies and monkfish vessels are required to report through the FishOnline IVR system in order to declare out of the gillnet fishery (aka spawning blocks). This requirement stipulates that multispecies vessels declare their required 20-day spawning season block of time out of the multispecies fishery. Multispecies vessels who are day gillnetters must declare their blocks of time out of the non-exempt gillnet fishery.

Research Set-Aside (RSA) - NE permit holders participating in an RSA program are required to submit IVR catch reports. Typically, a portion of the overall fishery-wide quota is set aside for RSA fishing. Researchers apply to obtain RSA quota through a grant process with NMFS. To monitor RSA catch and to ensure RSA quota grants are not exceeded, catch information is recorded and monitored through the Fish Online IVR catch reporting.

Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) - NE fishery permit holders fishing under an EFP are required to submit catch reports. An EFP is a permit issued by NMFS that exempts a vessel from specific regulations for the purpose of conducting research. For quota monitoring purposes, catch under an EFP is treated as commercial landings and, therefore, EFP catch is accounted for under the normal commercial fishery. However, because EFPs exempt vessels from the regulations, these landings need to be tracked separately. This allows NMFS to conduct additional project monitoring and enforcement oversight, ensuring that research is being conducted as proposed and exemptions from regulations aren’t being abused. EFP catch reports may be submitted by either FishOnline IVR or VMS.

The VMS collection of information requirements is covered in OMB Control No. 0648-0202, Greater Atlantic Region Permit Family of Forms.

The current regulations outlining the reporting requirements for vessel owners and operators are specified at 50 CFR 648.7(b).

2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection.

The information collected in the GARFO family of logbooks is used by several offices of the NOAA Fisheries Service, the USCG, the Councils, and state fishery enforcement agencies under contract to NMFS in order to develop, implement, and monitor fishery management strategies.

Logbook data serve as inputs for a variety of uses, including biological analyses and stock assessments, regulatory impact analyses, quota allocation selections and monitoring, economic profitability profiles, trade and import tariff decisions, allocation of grant funds among states, and analysis of ecological interactions among species. NMFS would be unable to fulfill the majority of its scientific research and fishery management missions without these data.

Fishing vessel owners/operators report data to GARFO using electronic means. VTR data is collected electronically via a variety of GARFO approved applications of the user’s choosing. IVR data is collected via GARFO’s FishOnline application. VMS catch reports are collected electronically using the vessel’s VMS unit.

Data is collected to quantify fishing effort. The landings data that the VTRs provide are critical to accurately monitor fishing mortality targets. Fishing effort information is needed to standardize differences in productivity among vessels or fishing grounds by establishing a rate of catch per unit time. This information allows comparisons over time and space of catches made by a variety of harvesters. Comparisons of catch and Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) over time are significant indicators of the biological status of the fishery.

The IVR program is used to collect landing information under the Mid-Atlantic RSA program and for EFPs. IVR data allows NMFS to quantify landings under these two programs that aren’t tracked elsewhere. This information is critical to ensuring landings don’t exceed the allocation and research landings don’t count against other non-research quotas.

Regardless of whether IVR is being used by vessels to notify NMFS that they are fulfilling their requirement to take a specified amount of time out of the multispecies or the non-exempt gillnet fisheries, or providing start and end trip times in a DAS fishery, the same basic process is used. The permit holder logs into the FishOnline system using credentials provided by NMFS. They then follow prompts to select spawning blocks or the monkfish\occasional scallop DAS fishery. Additional prompts collect the start and end date\times. This information is then used to calculate the length of time of their spawning block or DAS charge as appropriate.

Fishing Vessel Trip Reports (VTRs) data collection;

Vessel name and permit number/documentation number. The vessel permit number is a unique number assigned to each vessel issued an NE federal permit. This information is needed to accurately identify each fishing vessel for which a VTR report has been submitted. Requiring both the vessel name and permit number allows NMFS staff to cross-check both pieces of information to confirm the correct identity. Permit numbers are especially important for monitoring compliance with the reporting regulations and for matching the VTR data submitted by the vessels with the reports of fish purchases provided by dealers.

Trip type, number of crew, and number of anglers. Trip type is used to differentiate between commercial, party, charter, and recreational trips. The number of crew and number of anglers is needed to assign economic values to both the commercial and recreational segments of the fishing industry. The collection of the number of crew also allows for enforcement of crew size limits in particular fisheries. This data is also used in evaluating CPUE.

Date sailed/landed, number of hauls, duration of tows or sets, gear type, units and size of gear, and mesh size. This information is used to quantify actual fishing effort. Fishing effort is needed to standardize differences in productivity among vessels or fishing grounds by establishing a rate of catch per unit time. This information allows comparisons over time and space of catches made by a variety of harvesters. Comparisons of catch and CPUE over time are significant indicators of the biological status of the fisheries. Declining CPUEs can indicate over-fishing beyond the level of harvest that is sustainable through natural growth and reproduction of the stock.

Chart area fished, depth, latitude/longitude. These elements establish locations of fish capture, which can then be related to other biological and oceanographic information to predict species availability and likely future abundance. In addition, area fished is used to cross-reference locations where fishing is not permissible and monitor fish catch in particular areas.

Landings and discards, by species. Such species information is the basic measure of fishing success from which fishermen, biologists, and economists draw conclusions about the status of a fishery. Landings information is also needed because controlling the quantity of fish harvested is often the means for ensuring continued harvests of renewable resources over time.

Name of buyer, dealer number, date sold, and port of landings. These data are used in enforcing fishery regulations to cross-reference the quantity of fish appearing in the market. Enforcement officers conduct inspections at fish off-loading sites to ensure regulations are being met. These data elements are especially useful when monitoring quotas or when other constraints on harvest are used. It allows NMFS to track the resulting quantity of transactions on land between buyers and sellers.

Name of operator/owner. This information is used to identify the respondent and legal entity controlling the fishing practices of the vessel. Violations of quota regulations may be uncovered during an at-sea boarding and inspection, resulting in a fine, permit suspension, or catch seizure. As vessels may be owned by corporations, the identification of owner and operator on the VTR form allows NMFS to sanction the corporation as well as the operator as necessary. Information on the vessel and permit number is also used for further identification.

Signature of Operator and date. This is required so that the vessel trip report is official. It is important to know when the report was sent in so that we use all of the fields as mentioned above appropriately.

Vessel Fish Online IVR/VMS data collection:

Species Code. In order to differentiate between species, vessels will be required to report a species code.

Vessel Permit Number. FMPs have varying annual quotas. In order to monitor each quota, it is necessary to collect vessel catch data on a per trip basis. In order to ensure that vessels are meeting their reporting requirements, it is necessary to collect the Federal permit numbers from vessels. This also allows staff to match FishOnline reported catch information with catch information reported on VTRs and to minimize reporting errors.

VTR Serial Number. To match FishOnline data with VTR data, tilefish individual fishing quota (IFQ) permit holders must input their unique VTR serial number for each trip. This allows for more accurate matching of data, thus allowing reports to be produced in a timelier fashion.

Federal Dealer Number. To match FishOnline data with Federal dealer data, tilefish IFQ permit holders must the Federal dealer number for the dealer who purchased the tilefish. This allows for more accurate matching of data, thus allowing reports to be produced in a timelier fashion.

Project Code. To associate research (RSA and EFP) catch with a vessel permit number, vessels participating in research projects must enter a project code. This allows for research projects to be monitored at the project level and ensures research landings are appropriately attributed to research projects.

Total Landings, Trip, Date, and State. Landings data collected by trip, week and by state are necessary in order to monitor catch levels in a timely manner. Landings data is used in order to close a particular fishery or reduce possession limits if landings have reached the specified quota.

Fishing Area. Information on the area fish were caught is critical for accurately attributing landings or catch to the correct management unit or area. For those fisheries that are managed by area, it is imperative to know in which area the fish were caught.

Total Discards, Date. Discard information is necessary for open access Atlantic herring permits, as NMFS is required to monitor total herring catch, which includes both landings and discards of Atlantic herring. The data on total catch is used in order to reduce possession limits in the herring fishery if herring catch reaches the specified quota threshold.

Trip Start/End. Trip start and end time and day are necessary for calculating DAS usage for monkfish and NE multispecies vessels.

State Code. The state code is necessary for the scallop state exemption program.

Gear type, Spawning Area, Sector or Common Pool vessel selection. Vessels are required to enter the gear type, spawning area, and whether they are in the sector or common pool program as a part of the DAS program for monkfish and NE multispecies vessels.

It is anticipated that the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support publicly disseminated information. The NOAA Fisheries Service will retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and destruction, consistent with NOAA standards for confidentiality, privacy, and electronic information.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic submission of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection. Also, describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

All data is submitted electronically. VTR data is collected electronically via a variety of GARFO approved applications of the user’s choosing. IVR data is collected via GARFO’s FishOnline application. VMS catch reports are collected electronically using the vessel’s VMS unit.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Question 2

Some of the information collected in the FishOnline IVR and VMS catch reports is duplicative of the data collected in VTRs. IVR and VMS reporting is timelier than VTR data and is needed for time sensitive in-season quota monitoring purposes. Latency issues with VTR data make it insufficient for quota-monitoring. DAS data collection identifies time spent in a fishery which is not ascertainable from VTR data.

5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, describe any methods used to minimize burden.

The majority of fishermen that are required to submit information as a part of this collection are considered small businesses. In order to minimize burden, only the minimum data to meet the objectives are requested from respondents.

6. Describe the consequence to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

Without the collected from vessel operators, NMFS would be unable to meet its statutory requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

VTR data is fundamental to many of the agency’s missions and is used in support of management and science. The frequency and submission of VTRs is in many cases critical to in-season quota monitoring thereby avoiding quota overage and possibly compromising the health of the fish species population. VTRs also provide confirmation of other catch reports including dealer data, FishOnline IVR reports, and reports submitted electronically through the VMS, and provide additional information on catch locations, gear type, discards, etc., necessary to manage the fisheries. The frequency of reports has been kept to the minimum required for effective management. However, less frequent collection would jeopardize the value of the VTRs as a crosscheck on the information provided by seafood dealers and would render other GARFO data collection programs useless. Without this frequency of response, NMFS would be unable to accomplish in-season management of fisheries. If the collection were not conducted, more conservative management alternatives to protect the stock would have to be chosen, which would adversely affect fishermen’s income and employment.

FishOnline IVR and VMS reporting captures catch and discard information on a variety of species, enabling NMFS to accurately monitor fishing mortality and catch rates. Without catch information, quotas may be exceeded, which could result in closure of certain fishery management areas for the remainder of that fishing year and a reduction of that species’ quota for the following fishing year. In addition, exceeding the fishery quota could result in fishing mortality rates rising above legal limits and reaching levels that may compromise the objectives of the fisheries management plan. The FishOnline IVR system is the only method in which research landings are reported to NMFS. Without this data, NMFS would be unable to monitor research landings and deduct them from the overall quota for a particular species. Therefore, the research landings would count against the overall quota, and may cause a particular fishery to shutdown unnecessarily due to research landings.

7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.

NOAA requires respondents to report information to the agency more often than quarterly. The data collected under these programs are required by regulation, as outlined in 50 CFR Part 648 – Fisheries of the Northeastern United States. These regulations mandate that a report be submitted for every fishing trip. The resulting data are critical to the science and management of NOAA Fisheries-managed species.

The data collection is fully consistent with all other OMB guidelines.

8. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publications in the Federal Register of the agency's notice, required by 5 CFR 1320.8 (d), soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB. Summarize public comments received in response to that notice and describe actions taken by the agency in response to these comments. Specifically address comments received on cost and hour burden.

A Federal Register Notice (Vol 90, No. 52, Page 12708) concerning this collection was published on March 19, 2025, soliciting public comment. No comments were received.

In addition to the Federal Register notice, NMFS contacted stakeholders outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format, and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported. No comments were received.

9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

Neither payments nor gifts are given to the respondents.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy. If the collection requires a systems of records notice (SORN) or privacy impact assessment (PIA), those should be cited and described here.

All data will be kept confidential as required by NOAA Administrative Order 216-100, Confidentiality of Fisheries Statistics, and will not be released for public use except in aggregate statistical form (and without identifying the source of data, i.e., vessel name, owner, etc.). Confidentiality is also required by Section 402(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. VTRs are also considered confidential under the Trade Secrets Act.

This information is stored in NOAA system 4100, NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Office (GARO) Network and the current Privacy Impact Assessment can be found at https://www.osec.doc.gov/opog/privacy/NOAA%20PIAs/NOAA4100_PIA_SAOP_Approved.pdf. The information is collected in accordance with system of records notice (SORN) COMMERCE/NOAA-19, Permits and Registrations for United States Federally Regulated Fisheries.

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior or attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private. This justification should include the reasons why the agency considers the questions necessary, the specific uses to be made of the information, the explanation to be given to persons from whom the information is requested, and any steps to be taken to obtain their consent.

There are no questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information.

Information Collection	Type of Respondent (e.g., Occupational Title)	# of Respondents/year (a)	Annual # of Responses / Respondent (b)	Total # of Annual Responses (c) = (a) x (b)	Burden Hrs / Response (d)	Total Annual Burden Hrs (e) = (c) x (d)	Hourly Wage Rate (for Type of Respondent) (f)	Total Annual Wage Burden Costs (g) = (e) x (f)
Vessel Trip Reports (VTR)	Vessel Captain	3015	57.3194	172,818	5 min	14,402	40.98	590,194
Groundfish Spawning and Gillnet Blocks	Vessel Captain	7	1.29	9	3 min	0	40.98	0
Days at Sea (DAS) reports	Vessel Captain	744	18.985	14,125	3 min	706	40.98	28,932
Experimental Fishing Permits (EFP)	Vessel Captain	5	13.8	69	3 min	3	40.98	123
Daily catch reports	Vessel Captain	159	20.484	3,257	3 min	163	40.98	6680
Research Set Aside (RSA)	Vessel Captain	98	4.06	398	3 min	20	40.98	820
Totals				190,676		15,294		626,749

The estimated response time for VTRs is 5 minutes.

Due to the similarities in the web forms, a standardized response time of 3 minutes is used for the FishOnline IVR report and VMS forms.

The public labor cost uses the median salary of a fishing vessel captain. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not contain a fishing vessel captain category. In lieu of it, the following was used; https://www.comparably.com/salaries/salaries-for-fishing-vessel-captain to determine the wage burden using the assumptions that fishing vessel captains have on average 15-19 years of experience. The high end of the U.S. average wage of $85,247 annually was used. $85,247 / 2080 hours = $40.98/hr.

13. Provide an estimate for the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information. (Do not include the cost of any hour burden already reflected on the burden worksheet).

There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this information collection.

VTR and FishOnline IVR system reporters submit electronically using an internet capable device (smartphone, tablet, or PC). It is assumed that in today’s modernized society, it is commonplace and part of usual personal/business practices for industry members to already own and utilize these devices and internet connectivity.

There are no record keeping or retention requirements associated with the submission of these data.

14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government. Also, provide a description of the method used to estimate cost, which should include quantification of hours, operational expenses (such as equipment, overhead, printing, and support staff), and any other expense that would not have been incurred without this collection of information.

Cost Descriptions	Grade/Step	Loaded Salary /Cost	% of Effort	Fringe (if Applicable)	Total Cost to Government
Federal Oversight
PRA Administration	ZA-IV Interval 3	$238,290	0.005		$1,191
Contractor Cost
Travel
Other Costs:
TOTAL					$1,191

The Commerce Alternative Personnel System (CAPS) pay tables (https://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/CAPS_rpStandard_2024.pdf) for the Rest of U.S. location was used to determine the base salary since NOAA employees are geographically dispersed.  A multiplier of 1.5 was used to calculate the loaded salary.  There is no processing required on the part of NOAA, so the only cost to the government is for the administration of this ICR.  Therefore, the percent of effort is estimated at 0.005%.

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in ROCIS.

The previous information collection “Herring” was renamed to “Daily Catch Reports” (DCR) to accurately count for multiple species that are required to submit in the daily catch report.

DAS Respondents:

• The staff member who submitted the previous renewal package(s) for this collection has since retired, and unfortunately, we are unable to replicate or explain how he arrived at his figures.  

• For this renewal, we approached the DAS numbers differently. While the breakdown wasn’t detailed in the renewal package itself, the 744 DAS respondents include:

• 56 Monkfish respondents (similar to the 2022 renewal’s 54);

• 161 Groundfish respondents; and

• 527 Scallop respondents.

• It appears that Groundfish and Scallop DAS respondents may have been omitted from the prior package. One possible explanation is that, because those respondents fulfill DAS reporting requirements using the same application as their eVTR reporting, my predecessor may have believed including them would result in double-counting. Alternatively, it may have simply been an oversight.

• Unfortunately, his methodology is neither documented nor reproducible, so a direct comparison is not possible. NMFS took a deliberate and transparent approach in developing the figures in the current package, calculating each group separately before aggregating the total to 744.

Information Collection	Respondents		Responses		Burden Hours		Reason for change or adjustment
	Current Renewal / Revision	Previous Renewal / Revision	Current Renewal / Revision	Previous Renewal / Revision	Current Renewal / Revision	Previous Renewal / Revision
Vessel Trip Reports (VTR)	3,015	2,090	172,818	103,831	14,344	8,618	The Lobster VTR and Tilefish reporting were merged into this IC since all VTRs use the same eFishOnline forms. There is also an Increase in the number of electronic submissions
Groundfish Spawning and Gillnet blocks	7	6	9	11	0	1	Decrease in the volume of respondents affected burden and responses.
Days at Sea (DAS) reports	744	54	14,125	2,757	706	138	See comment preceding this table.
Experimental Fishing Permits (EFP)	5	1	69	24	3	1	EFPs (Experimental Fishing Permits) are issued to allow industry participants to fish under exemptions from standard regulations. These applications are submitted annually, so the total number of EFPs can vary from year to year.
Daily Catch Reports (DCR)	159	9	3,257	39	163	2	IC previously named “Herring” now includes multiple species in catch report.
Research Set Aside (RSA)	98	7	398	397	20	20	Increase in # of respondents
Tilefish	0	2	0	21	0	1	Tilefish reports have been added to the VTR IC since the IVR requirement was eliminated.
Lobster- Vessel Trip Report	0	2,038	0	85,123	0	9,959	This IC was merged into the main VTR because all VTRs use the same eFish online forms.
Total for Collection	4,028	4,207	190,676	192,203	15,236	18,749
Difference	-179		-1,527		-3,504

16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication. Address any complex analytical techniques that will be used. Provide the time schedule for the entire project, including beginning and ending dates of the collection of information, completion of report, publication dates, and other actions.

Results from this collection may be used in scientific, management, technical or general informational publications such as the annual Fisheries of the United States reports, which follows prescribed statistical tabulations and summary table formats. Data is available to the general public upon request in summary form only. Data is available to NMFS employees in detailed form on a need-to-know basis only. NMFS will retain control over the information and safeguard it from improper access, modification, and destruction, consistent with NOAA standards for confidentiality, privacy, and electronic information.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons that display would be inappropriate.

This collection is done entirely electronically using software applications. Therefore, there is no form on which to display an expiration date.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions."

The agency certifies compliance with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).