4 °C - the National Sea Grant Library

ISSC UPDATE
David Heil
Dept. Environmental Protection
3900 Commonwealth Blvd.
Mail Station 205
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Good morning, it is a pleasure to be here in New Orleans. I am David Heil,
Chairman-Elect of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC). I want to
thank Dr. Steve Otwell for inviting me to speak to you today.
I was asked to present an update of current ISSC activities. Many of you are
probably not familiar with the ISSC, and before updating you on ISSC activities, I
would like to explain what the ISSC is, who is involved, why the organization was
formed, and how it functions.
The ISSC is a molluscan shellfish regulatory development organization
comprised of participants from state shellfish control agencies, the shellfish industry,
members of the academic community, and federal regulatory agencies (most notably
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service Branch
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--NOAA. Simply stated,
that is the “what” and “who” of the ISSC.
The “why” is more complicated. Regulatory control governing the sanitary
quality of shellfish dates back to 1658 when the Dutch Council of New Amsterdam
(later renamed New York) passed an ordinance regulating the harvesting of oysters
from the East River. Similar measures have occurred in the United States and
eventually the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established the National
Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) in 1924 as a voluntary state and industry
program. A Manual of Operations was published at that time outlining the
procedures that would govern the program.
The NSSP functioned welI for approximately 50 years, but changes in state
and federal governmental organizations and challenges to the federal portion of the
program made participation by state regulatory officials and the shellfish industry
ineffective. State programs began to diverge from the NSSP, and the federal program
appeared unable to maintain the uniformity necessary to ensure the safety of shellfish
as a food source. Faced with this deteriorating situation, representatives of fifteen
shellfish producing states met in October, 1979, in Ocean City, Maryland, to