Establish National Minimum Insurance Standard for National Marine Fisheries Service Programs That Permit or Approve Observer Providers

NMFS is proposing to establish a uniform, nationally consistent minimum insurance standard that would apply in regional regulatory programs that authorize an observer provider to deploy a person in any mandatory or voluntary observer program and that specify responsibilities of authorized providers. NMFS has concluded that this action is necessary to clarify the types of insurance that are appropriate to address the financial risks that observer coverage presents in any federally managed fishery that is subject to observer coverage. The proposed standard would establish a nationally consistent suite of insurance coverages that an observer provider seeking authorization, or that has been authorized, must have to mitigate the financial risks associated with providing observer services; specifically observer deployments to fishing vessels or shoreside locations such as processing facilities, and those that arise with training personnel for these deployments. Through compliance with this minimum standard, observer providers would be properly insured, thereby mitigating the financial risks that fishing vessels, first receivers, and shoreside processors have when complying with observer coverage requirements. This proposed rule would also revise regional observer program regulations to reference the newly established national minimum insurance standard, but existing regional observer program regulatory procedures that specify how an observer provider demonstrates compliance with insurance requirements would not be modified.