Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
A. No person shall engage in the business of
relaying shellfish from waters not approved for direct market harvesting by the
state health officer prior to obtaining a permit for that purpose from the
Department of Health, Office of Public Health. Growing waters to be utilized
for shellfish relaying purposes must meet or exceed the Department of Health's
' criteria for a restricted area classification. Applications shall be
completed and submitted with a fee of $100, which shall be paid by cashier's
check or money order and filed not less than 14 days prior to the beginning of
such proposed relaying. Relaying of shellfish shall be permitted only during
the first two weeks of each calendar month. The Louisiana Molluscan Shellfish
Program shall allow the relay of suitable shellstock during all 12 months of
the year.
B. The Louisiana
Molluscan Shellfish Program hereby establishes species-specific critical values
for water temperature and salinity, which may affect the natural treatment
process in the growing are to which the shell stock Crassostrea
virginica (American Oyster, Eastern Oyster) will be relayed.
1. The critical salinity tolerances
Crassostrea virginica shall be established as 3 to 36 parts
per thousand. Salinities shall be measured at approximately twelve inches below
the water surface.
2. The critical
temperature for Crassostrea virginica shall be established at
temperatures 44-89 degrees Fahrenheit. Water temperatures shall be measured at
approximately 12 inches below the water surface.
3. The species-specific critical pollution
criteria shall be that the growing area for relay shall demonstrate through its
historical data that the water quality can reasonably be expected to meet the
approved or conditionally approved criteria.
4. Relay activities which expose shell stock
to this range of temperature and salinity values for a minimum of fourteen days
shall be considered as meeting the speciesspecific critical values for relay of
Crassostrea virginica.
5. The requirement for monitoring
environmental conditions of the relay area shall be accomplished by collecting
bacteriological water sample data and salinity data from sample stations
nearest the relay area which are actively collected each month by the program.
Three sample stations which triangulate, if possible, the relay area will be
selected to meet this monitoring requirement.
6. No studies of contaminant levels of
poisonous or deleterious substances in shellstock shall be conducted on
shellstock for relay unless there exists scientific evidence which indicates
the relay shellstock contains a poisonous or deleterious substance(s) which
exceed a FDA tolerance level(s), or it is known that relay shellstock have been
exposed to high levels of poisonous or deleterious substances.
7. The growing area to be used for the
treatment process shall be monitored with sufficient frequency to identify when
limiting critical value of water temperature of 44-89 degrees Fahrenheit and
salinity 3-36 parts per thousand may be approached.
8. The effectiveness of species-specific
contaminated reduction shall be determined based on a study. The study report
shall demonstrate that, after the completion of the relay activity, the
microbiological quality of shellstock is the same microbiological quality as
that of the same shellstock already present in the approved or conditionally
approved area.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
Promulgated in accordance with
R.S.
40:4.A.(1),
R.S.
40:5.A.(2)(3)(5)(7)(9)(15)(17)(19)(20) and
R.S.
40:5.3.
