Mr. Colvin reported that DEC is continuing to work on the contingency plan required by the ISSC interim control plan for this disease-causing bacterium. A joint meeting has been scheduled of the FDA, NYS Health Department, and DEC in early April. North Shore Shellfishing Area II must be monitored, but whether other shellfish statistical areas also need to be included and the details of the frequency and duration of monitoring have to be determined. The DEC needs personnel and lab resources, which Mr. Colvin believes may to be made available through the Department’s budget. Councilor David Relyea criticized a recent morbidity and mortality report on V. parahaemolyticus as misleading. Mr. Colvin agreed that crustaceans should be separated from shellfish. No acceptable processes exist yet to purify a contaminated oyster. Councilor Relyea informed the Council that the Northeastern Shellfish Sanitation Association will meet in Ocean City, New Jersey in May and will discuss this issue. Three individuals from the FDA will attend. A representative from the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may also attend the meeting. Mr. Relyea noted that the annual shellfish biology seminar in Milford Connecticut was held last week. There were three speakers on V. parahaemolyticus, which heightened the aquaculture industry’s awareness of this problem. He suggested that the US Department of Agriculture should be urged to get involved in the V. parahaemolyticus problem. It is to be hoped that the ISSC will make changes in the interim control plan this summer. There are problems with the "number per gram" and the stated number of illnesses found in their interim plan. Mr. Colvin added that the strain of the bacterium, not the numbers, was what mattered, and that "zero tolerance" of Vibrio parahaemolyticus would make verification of the source of one person’s illness very difficult. Reopening criteria remain vague.