FWS Working on Bulk Species Submission in eDecs; Doesn't Budge on Add'l Data Elements

The Fish and Wildlife Service is working on improvements to its eDecs system that include bulk entry of fish and wildlife species on import and export declarations, the agency told commenters on the declarations in an Oct. 5 notice.

The notice, which says FWS is sending the information collection to the Office of Management and Budget for approval and says comments may be submitted to OMB by Nov. 6, addresses comments on both the paper FWS Form 3-177 and submission of the form via eDecs.

FWS is proposing changes to current declarations, including new data elements for the container number for ocean cargo, any U.S. permit numbers other than the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the designated port exception number and the CITES tag or marking number for certain sport-hunted wildlife species. FWS received four substantive comments on an initial notice it issued in March.

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America told FWS in its comments that the container number, permit number and port exception number are already all available in ACE, and the CITES tag number is available on the CITES certificate. But the FWS said it still intends to collect the data elements, as “not all declarations are submitted through ACE,” and adding the CITES tag number “will better enable our inspection efforts.”

The NCBFAA also said the additional data elements may not apply to exports, and asked for an “N/A option.” In particular, the container number is not known for exports, because the container is loaded after inspection, the trade group said.

“We disagree that these additional elements do not apply to exports, as all of them could; a field may be required based on the commodity and location of export,” the FWS said. “The container number is sometimes known for exports, but we will not make this a required field,” the agency added.

The FWS also noted the NCBFAA’s concern that ACE doesn't support the generation of multiple eDecs per entry. The agency said, “we recognize that the systems have this limitation; it is a problem we hope to address in the future, recognizing that there are budget constraints.”

The FWS statement that it is working on adding bulk entry of species names came in response to a comment from the Ornithological Council, as well as joint comments from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Humane Society, which expressed concern that the full name isn’t included and that, “for example, marine aquarium tropical fish importers do not provide that information, so it is not clear what species are being imported.”

The Ornithological Council said it’s “difficult to enter many specimens into the e-Decs system individually rather than being able to upload a spreadsheet or a batch of information. Individual entry takes several hours, and the eDecs system appears to time out.” While the group agreed with the agency’s original average estimate for the time required to submit an eDec for one species is 10 minutes, it said that, “for a scientific eDec with many species, it may take hours.”

The FWS said, “Regarding requiring the full and scientific names, we are working on programming that will allow improved/bulk entry of species names, and we hope will increase the number of species identified in the 3-177 vs. in supporting documents.”

The Ornithological Society also said it “would be helpful and would save a lot of time” if the eDecs system automatically recognized a species’ protected status when it's entered in eDecs. But the FWS said it’s up to the importer or exporter to know the status of a species, and that it is “concerned that if the system flags a species as protected, dishonest importers/exporters will simply choose a different species and declare the species as that one instead.”

The FWS did adjust its burden estimates for the information collection. It said the public on average spends about 12 minutes for an eDecs submission, rather than the 10 minutes it estimated in its initial comment request. The NCBFAA said in its comments that a filing generally takes 15-20 minutes in eDecs, 10-15 minutes for a complete data set in ACE or 15-25 minutes for a limited data set in ACE, according to the notice, adding that “the burden goes beyond the actual data entry and includes preparation and post-entry elements.” The FWS left its estimate of a declaration filed in ACE at 10 minutes.