The paperwork behind 65 villages' share of the Bering Sea is up for renewal

Six groups hold fishing quota in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands on behalf of 65 Western Alaska villages: 7.5 percent of the Bering Sea multispecies catch and a fifth of the region's sablefish. The federal paperwork that keeps that arrangement documented takes, by the government's own estimate, 36 hours a year across all six of them. That works out to six hours apiece.

NOAA Fisheries is asking the Office of Management and Budget to renew its authority to collect it. The notice publishes Thursday, Sept. 3, and comments run through Oct. 3. Anyone can file one, not only the six groups.

The collection covers four items. One is a vessel registration system that lets a registered small hook-and-line catcher vessel work without the federal license those boats would otherwise need.

This is the second comment window on the renewal. A 60-day period opened March 16.