If your company is not currently an approved at-sea monitoring (ASM) and/or electronic monitoring (EM) provider and you would like to provide monitoring services to groundfish sectors in fishing year 2022 (May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023), you must submit an application by October 15, 2021. Companies already approved to provide ASM or EM services in fishing years 2021 and 2022 do not need to apply again in order to provide those services in 2022. Companies not already approved to provide either ASM or EM services in fishing years 2021 and 2022 need to apply for approval for the respective service in 2022.
Applications must include a cover letter and the information and statements identified in the regulations at 50 CFR 648.87(b)(4). In your cover letter, please specify whether you are interested in providing ASM services, EM services, or both. Companies interested in providing both ASM and EM services must develop separate ASM and EM deployment plans to meet the service provider performance standards (§ 648.87(b)(4)(ii)(A)).
We will review your application in accordance with the third-party monitoring provider standards (§ 648.87(b)(4) and (5)). Please review the regulations describing ASM and EM provider and operational standards carefully, including the requirements for signed statements. Approvals will cover fishing year 2022, and final decisions will be published in the Federal Register. There will be a future opportunity to apply for a two-year approval for fishing years 2023 and 2024.
Please use Kiteworks, a secure file-sharing service, to submit the requested documents by October 15, 2021, to Claire Fitz-Gerald at claire.fitz-gerald@noaa.gov and Kyle Molton at kyle.molton@noaa.gov. If you need help creating a Kiteworks account, please contact claire.fitz-gerald@noaa.gov for assistance.
