Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Provisions of the American Fisheries Act (AFA)

NMFS announces approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of collection-of-information requirements contained in the following American Fisheries Act (AFA)-related amendments: Amendment 61 to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Area, Amendment 61 to the FMP for Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska, Amendment 13 to the FMP for BSAI King and Tanner Crab, and Amendment 8 to the FMP for the Scallop Fishery off Alaska (collectively referred to as Amendment 61/61/13/8), and in Amendment 69 to the FMP for the Groundfish Fishery of the BSAI Area, and issues a final rule to make effective the collections of information contained in those amendments. The collections provide that if an AFA cooperative contract was previously filed with NMFS and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), a renewal letter may be submitted to NMFS and the Council in lieu of the cooperative contract and business review letter. Each AFA cooperative contract must include a clause that the parties agree to make payments to the State of Alaska for any pollock harvested in the directed pollock fishery that are not landed in the State of Alaska; and an AFA cooperative may contract with a non-member vessel to harvest a portion of the cooperative's annual pollock allocation. The intent of this final rule is to inform the public of the effective date of the requirements.