The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is immediately shutting down thousands of acres of shellfish beds surrounding the New Bedford and Fairhaven wastewater treatment plant outfalls to comply with federal health and safety standards.
More than 18,000 acres of the Dartmouth, Fairhaven and New Bedford coastline, including quahogging areas off the outer New Bedford Harbor, will be reclassified from being conditionally approved shellfishing areas to prohibited. This means the state will not permit harvesting shellfish from these areas under any conditions.
