Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; North Pacific Fishery Management Council Cooperative Annual Reports

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 1/20/2026, 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.

Title: North Pacific Fishery Management Council Cooperative Annual Reports.

OMB Control Number: 0648-0678.

Form Number(s): None.

Type of Request: Regular submission: revision and extension of a current information collection.

Number of Respondents: 25.

Average Hours per Response: Alaska Crab Rationalization Program Cooperative Annual Report, 30 hours for ICE and 5 hours for the other Cooperatives; Annual Rockfish Cooperative Report, 2 hours for the catch/processor report and 25 hours for the catcher vessel report; Annual Amendment 80 Cooperative Report, 10 hours; Amendment 80 Bycatch Avoidance Report to the Council, 2 hours; American Fisheries Act Annual Catcher Vessel Inter-cooperative Report, 40 hours; American Fisheries Act Cooperative Annual Report, 16 hours; Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative Annual Report, 18 hrs.

Total Annual Burden Hours: 623.

Needs and Uses: This is a request for revision and extension of an approved information collection. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Regional Office (AKR), is the sponsor of this information collection. The Amendment 80 Halibut Prohibited Species Catch (PSC) Management Plan is being removed from this collection as it is no longer provided to the Council. The Council receives only one report annually. All voluntary information has been consolidated into the Amendment 80 Bycatch Report to the Council.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) has developed cooperative programs as options in several fishery catch share programs. As part of cooperative programs, the Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have required or requested that the cooperatives submit annual reports detailing various fishery activities. These reports are intended to be a resource for the Council to track the effectiveness of cooperatives and their ability to meet the Council's goals, and as way for NMFS to monitor the internal fishery management practices of cooperatives. Additionally, they are a tool for the cooperatives to provide feedback on the programs. This collection covers the following required and voluntary cooperative and inter-cooperative reports, agreements, and plans:

• The Alaska Crab Rationalization Program Cooperative Annual Report is voluntary and provides information about measures taken by cooperatives to increase the availability of crab quota share (QS) for transfer to active participants and crew members in the fishery, as well as actions to decrease high QS lease rates and improve low crew compensation.
• The Rockfish Program Cooperative Annual Report is a voluntary summary of cooperative harvests, retention, discards, monitoring methods, and disciplinary actions made within each Rockfish Program cooperative. Additionally, it contains voluntary reporting requirements including monthly chinook bycatch by origin, and intertemporal harvest information.
• The Amendment 80 Cooperative Annual Report is a required summary of cooperative harvests, discards, monitoring methods, disciplinary actions taken against non-compliant members, groundfish retention calculations, and a third-party audit. Voluntary elements of the report include catch from the Northern Bristol Bay Trawl Area, fleet catch capacity over time, and intertemporal harvest information. An additional voluntary element was added to this report in 2019 requesting information on cooperatives or other measures implemented to reduced bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) yellowfin sole Trawl Limited Access Sector fishery by A80 participants. ( printed page 48375)
• The Amendment 80 Bycatch Avoidance Report to the Council is a voluntary collection providing information to the Council about fishery cooperative halibut avoidance practices, communication between participating harvesters, use of halibut excluders, deck sorting, bycatch performance assessment of individual boats, incentives to reduce bycatch, and consequences for substandard performance.
• The American Fisheries Act (AFA) Catcher Vessel Inter-cooperative Agreement is voluntary and includes fishery allocations of cooperative members, penalties to members that exceed them, monitoring methods, limits on the amount of cod harvested by certain vessels. procedures for inter-cooperative sideboard transfers, and incentives for prohibited species catch reduction.
• The American Fisheries Act Cooperative Annual Report is required and must report the cooperative's pollock and sideboard allocations, sub-allocations made to individual vessels, retained and discarded catch, monitoring methods, actions taken against non-compliant members, any pollock landed outside the State of Alaska, and chinook bycatch including a list of vessels with the highest bycatch rates. An additional voluntary element was added to this report in 2019 requesting information on cooperatives or other measures implemented to reduce bycatch in the BSAI yellowfin sole Trawl Limited Access Sector fishery by AFA participants.
• The Pacific Cod Trawl Cooperative (PCTC) Annual Report is voluntary and provides information on the structure, function and operation of the cooperatives, including information on cooperative quota (CQ) leasing activities, and any penalties issued, harvest of CQ resulting from processor-held quota share (QS), cooperative membership, cooperative management, and performance (including implementation of the Aleutian Islands set-aside when in effect).

Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.

Frequency: Annually.

Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary; Mandatory.

Legal Authority: Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.).

This information collection request may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov. 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 www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. 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 0648-0678.