August 30, 2018 — National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking public comment through Sept. 14 to support an initiative to reform and streamline observer program insurance requirements.
Goals of the reform effort are to ease the regulatory burden and reduce costs for private companies providing observer staffing to NMFS observer programs through more efficient, nationally applicable insurance requirements, NMFS stated in its posting in the Federal Register.
The aim is to eliminate outdated and/or inappropriate regulatory requirements, reduce observer deployment risks for vessel owners and shore side processors and identify insurance that could improve observer safety and facilitate full compensation for observer occupational injuries.
NMFS is seeking technical information on the types of insurance and minimum coverage amounts in dollars that would minimize observer deployment risks to the extent practicable considering costs and other factors.