Amendment 17 to the Surfclam
and Ocean Quahog Fishery
Management Plan

Press Release — Amendment 17 establishes a cost recovery program for the individual transferable quota (ITQ) fishery, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Regulators are required to recover costs related to management, data collection, and enforcement of the Surfclam/Ocean Quahog ITQ fishery.

Starting in 2017, a per-tag fee will be announced at the beginning of each fishing year. Fishermen will be billed at the end of each fishing year based on the number of their tags used to land clams during the year. The first payments will be due in 2018.

Amendment 17 also contains provisions to remove the optimum yield ranges from the management plan, and to change how biological reference points are incorporated into the plan.