Whaling Provisions; Consolidation and Revision of Regulations; Collection-of-Information Approval

NMFS revises and updates regulations pertaining to aboriginal subsistence whaling by removing outdated provisions, codifying current practice, incorporating current term usage, and reorganizing the remaining provisions to make the whaling regulations more concise, better organized and, therefore, easier for the public to use. In addition, the regulations broaden the current mechanism for regulating International Whaling Commission (IWC) authorized whaling by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) and other Native American groups. This rule also adds a reference to an approved collection-of-information under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).