Business Context, Transaction Types and Volume
National Marine Fisheries Service issues permits to fishing industry individuals and corporations and also to individual recreational fishers. More.... legislative or other policy mandates Permits to fish in waters of the United States and international waters are authorized by various statutes and laws, primarily the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Public Law 94-265, as variously amended, most
recently by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act (P.L. 109-479)) (MSA); High Seas Fishery Management and Conservation Act; and the Northern Pacific Halibut Act (Halibut Act). The most used permitting authority, the MSA, provides authority for issuance of permits for foreign fishing; or, under § 303(A) Limited Access Privilege Programs (LAPPs) or § 303(b) as a discretionary provision under authority of a Fishery
Management Plan: for vessels, vessel operators, or processors.
Permits and licensing provide means to verify appropriate participation and allocation of resources. For example, foreign participation is limited in most U.S. fisheries. Permits are fundamental to individual transferable quota, also known as individual fishing quota (IFQ) and limited access privilege (LAP), which are increasingly used as instruments to manage fisheries from the perspectives of optimum yield and economic viability. Permits also facilitate collection of critical harvest, effort, and economic data and are fundamental to enforcing compliance with record-keeping and reporting laws and regulations. Permits are also critical for analytic purposes such as determining economic dependence on fisheries, studying fishery development and collapse, assessing status of stocks, and as the basis of allocation decisions.
A wide range of permit types are issued. Some representative examples are:
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New permit application volume nation-wide is estimated at __ new permits per year.
Permit renewal volume nation-wide is estimated at __ renewals per At any given time, and depending on how they are counted, the Alaska Region has an estimated 25,000 active permits and registrations, issued to in excess of 9,500 persons (both individuals and non-individual business entities).
Most permits in the Alaska Region are issued for two years so approximately half of these permits must renewed each year.
Permit transfer volume nation-wide is estimated at __ transfers per year.
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In general these permit applications do not contain highly sensitive information. However, most have However, information collected pursuant to requirements of the MSA, including permit application information, is protected by its confidentiality
provisions at § 402 and under its implementing regulations at 50 CFR Part 600 Subpart E, including NOAA Administrative Order (NAO) 216-100. Additional protections of the Privacy Act and FOIA apply to such data as well as those
collected under the Halibut Act. Most permit applications contain some personally identifying information (PII) and some few applications may contain proprietary business information.
Mitigating controls
Registration Perhaps the most significant mitigating control is that in commercial fisheries transactions, both parties to the transaction (typically the fisher and the fish processor) are permitted entities and each has some responsibility for accurate and complete record-keeping and reporting (for example, the fisher may be required to keep a logbook showing fishing efforts and catch, while the processor is required to report fish purchased). In these transactions it is typical for the parties to the transactions to have opposite and balancing interests (for example, when a fisher is selling fish to a processor, the fisher wants the amount paid to be high, while the processor wants the amount paid to be low). These multiple sources of information and counter-balanced incentives tend to make deception more difficult to initiate and sustain.
In the National Permit System registration will be open to new permit applicants, existing permit holders, and agents of both. From the system perspective, there is little difference between permit holders and agents of permit holders. (Agents should file a notarized letter of authorization from each permit owner that the agent represents. The permit owner is responsible for transactions pertaining to their permit, and if they have delegated to an agent without submitting the authorization letter, that doesn't absolve them of any responsibility.) New permit applicants will not be identifiable with the same level of assurance as existing permit holders, but, as the permit application is processed, the confidence in the permit holder's identity will grow. And as a new permit applicant starts out with no value in the system, there is little at risk for these participants whose identity is less certain.
Existing permit holders may have considerable value in the system; for example, they may own fisheries quota that has significant market value. These existing permit holders must demonstrate knowledge of a secret permit access code (PAC) which was mailed by USPS mail to the permit owner's address of record. After a participant has registered and associated their permits with their username (through knowledge of one or more PACs), then the participant can access potentially sensitive permit information as well as renew or transfer permits. There are opportunities for mitigating controls in business processes, so the e-signature process does not necessarily have to address all of the transaction risk.
New permit applications generally involve processing rigor commiserate with the value of the permit. Permits for fisheries with low economic opportunity and/or low risk to the public resource generally receive only nominal scrutiny. Permits for fisheries with high economic opportunity and/or high risk to the public resource receive considerable scrutiny. In many cases this involves confirming vessel ownership with the US Coast Guard, verifying participation in prior fisheries through previously submitted state or federal fish tickets or logbooks, confirmation of business ownership, etc.
Permit renewals generally receive little scrutinysomewhat less scrutiny than new applications, but renewals are processed in the context of a rich ongoing relationship among the permit holder, the permit holder's partners in business transactions, and the agency, and deceptions with respect to an individual's identity would be difficult to sustain in this context.
Permit transfers receive scrutiny commiserate with the complexity of the relevant fisheries management plan. For the more complex fisheries management regimes, changes to permit ownership patterns may have ripple effects. In the absence of complex ownership rules, permit transfers might receive little scrutiny.
Threat and Vulnerability Identification
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