These three parties combine to form a tripartite cooperative program that has accepted responsibilities for the following procedures:
The two volume National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP), Manual of Operations is published by the Food and Drug Administration. This Manual of Operations is a guide for establishing State Shellfish laws and regulations that include: general administrative procedures, laboratory procedures, and guidelines for growing area survey and classification, controlled relaying, patrol of shellfish harvesting areas and control of harvesting, and aquaculture.
Updates to this Manual of Operations are accomplished with the cooperation of the State Shellfish Authority, the shellfish industry and the federal regulatory agencies (Food and Drug Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Environmental Protection Agency) at the annual Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference.
This manual is also used by the FDA as the basis for certifying foreign shellfish sanitation programs. International countries seeking to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to export molluscan bivalves to the United States will ensure their government has laws or regulations equivalent to those published in this Manual and have the necessary resources to exercise control over the export shellfish industry.
For more information write to:
Office of Seafood
Division of Programs and Enforcement Policy
200 C Street, SW (HFS-417)
Washington, DC 20204
The following files have been compressed using PKZIP v2.04g. Use Shift - Click to download.
Part I
Part II