Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Application for an Exempted Fishing Permit

Resumen

This notice announces NMFS' receipt of an application and the public comment period for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) from Real Time Data North America, LLC (RTDNA), a private company specializing in software/application development. If issued, this permit would allow the applicant to test methods for its software application to interface with and meet the electronic logbook (ELB) requirements without also meeting the duplicate hard copies recordkeeping and reporting requirement. The objectives of this EFP, if issued, would be to exempt fishery participants from the requirement to print paper logbooks when using a RTDNA ELB, and to test and scale a fully electronic reporting system in partnership with the NMFS Alaska Regional Office. Field testing would be conducted between March 1, 2024 and January 1, 2026. This experiment would have the potential to streamline recordkeeping and reporting requirements and thus promote the objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act).