Final Regulatory Impact Review for a Regulatory Amendment to Require the Use of tLandings for Tender Vessels Receiving Federal Groundfish

This Review/Analysis analyzes proposed management measures. These measures would apply exclusively to the directed groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Management Areas.

The preferred alternative (Alternative 2) would require the operators of tenders taking deliveries of groundfish in the federally managed fisheries off Alaska and the processors that take deliveries from these tenders to use the NOAA Fisheries-developed applications software “tLandings” to prepare electronic landing reports that are submitted to NOAA Fisheries.

The purpose of the proposed action is to improve the timeliness and reliability of landing reports for catcher vessels delivering to tenders. More timely and reliable landing reports would improve the data used in catch accounting and in-season management of the groundfish fisheries off Alaska. In addition, the use of tLandings would improve NOAA Fisheries' ability to identify landings by catcher vessels delivering to tenders while preparing the annual deployment plan and annual report for the North Pacific Groundfish and Halibut Observer Program.