Amendment 17 to the Surfclam
and Ocean Quahog Fishery
Management Plan

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

Starting in 2017, we will announce a per-tag fee at the beginning of each fishing year. We will bill fishermen 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.