Massachusetts (Designated Shellfish Growing Areas, 2000)

The Designated Shellfish Growing Area (DSGA) datalayer was compiled by the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement's (DFWELE) Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF). Three hundred and three growing areas in Massachusetts have been designated by DMF's Shellfish Project.

A designated shellfish growing area is an area of potential shellfish habitat, and all three hundred and three DSGA's make up the territorial waters (tidal zone out to the territorial line) of the Commonwealth. Growing areas are managed with respect to shellfish harvest for direct human consumption, and comprise at least one or more classification areas. The classification areas are the management units, and range from being approved to prohibited (six different classification types in all) with respect to shellfish harvest. For example, one growing area may be composed of four classification areas, all of which are managed separately (have a classification type the same or different from the rest in the growing area).  This coverage reflects classification areas as of July 1, 2000.

The Division of Marine Fisheries and MassGIS are maintaining this datalayer.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data. This layer will provide a basemap for layers related to real property and public utilities More advanced user applications may focus on urban planning, public works, or utilities purposes (including defining boundaries, managing assets and facilities, integrating attribute databases with geographic features, spatial analysis, and presentation output.)