North Atlantic 



In the North Atlantic region, 1.1 

 million acres of estuarlne waters 

 were classified for shellfish harvest 

 in 1990 (Figure 3). This region 

 experienced the largest decrease in 

 percentage of approved estuarine 

 shellfish-growing waters nation- 

 wide, from 88 percent in 1985 to 69 

 percent in 1990. In addition, Maine 

 classified over 884,000 acres 

 offshore, all approved, and Massa- 

 chusetts classified over 394,000 

 acres offshore, of which 349,000 

 were approved. 



Estuarine Shellfish-Growing Wa- 

 ters. The North Atlantic region 

 extends from the U.S. -Canada border 

 in Maine to the tip of Cape Cod in 

 Massachusetts. Estuaries in the 

 region are small, deep, and subject to 

 strong tidal forces. There are only 

 about 1 ,200 square miles of coastal 

 wetlands in the region (NOAA, 

 1991b). Consequently, habitat for 

 intertidal molluscan shellfish is limited 

 while habitat for subtidal species such 

 as scallops is excellent. The estua- 

 rine water surface areas range from 

 six square miles for the Merrimack 

 River to 548 square miles for Cape 

 Cod Bay. Five of the drainage basins 

 that most directly affect the quality of 

 the region's shellfish-growing waters 

 are dominated by metropolitan areas; 

 the rest are largely rural, agricultural 

 and forested (NOAA, 1990). 

 Penobscot Bay has the most ap- 

 proved shellfish-growing waters, 

 215,000 acres, followed by Casco 

 Bay, with 1 13,000 acres. Appendix C 

 identifies the estuaries in the region 

 and summarizes the status of shell- 

 fish-growing waters in each. 



Classified Shellfish-Growing 

 Waters, 1985-1990. Approved 

 estuarine shellfish-growing waters 

 declined from 88 to 69 percent of 

 classified estuarine waters between 

 1 985 and 1 990. Over 352,000 acres 

 in the region are now classified as 

 harvest-limited. In addition, a net of 

 10,000 non-productive acres were 

 removed from the Register data base. 

 Declines in approved waters occurred 

 in Maine and Massachusetts, and 

 resulted in 219,000 acres being 

 downgraded to harvest-limited classifi- 

 cations. However, nearly 1.3 million 

 approved acres were added offshore. 

 Table 7 shows classifications by state 

 for 1985 and 1990. 



Eight of the 1 5 estuaries in the region 

 had downgrades in classification of 

 shellfish-growing waters, while five 

 had upgrades. Approved acreage 

 outside estuaries in NOAA's NEI 

 increased by 8,000 acres. However, 

 downgrades occurred in 

 Passamaquoddy, Englishman, 



Table 7. Distribution of North Atlantic 

 Classified Estuarine Waters, 

 1985 and 1990 



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