Business Context and Volume
from proposal...National Marine Fisheries Service issues permits to fishing industry individuals and corporations and also to individual recreational fishers. More.... legislative or other policy mandatesNMFS requires the use of permits or registrations by participants in U.S. federally regulated fisheries. 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) and the High Seas Fishery Management and Conservation 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 limited access privilege programs (LAPP), also known as individual transferable quotaor individual fishing quota (IFQ), which are increasingly used as instruments to manage fisheries from the perspectives of optimum yield and economic viability. Permits 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.
Currently 6 vessels report electronically, could go up to 200 vessels, must transfer within 72 hours of landing, typically vessels land every few weeks, potential exists for daily reporting via VMS....
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