Insights

Our fee study for the Department of Health found that biotoxin testing would account for 42 percent of proposed commercial shellfish fees. We recommended that the state fund testing as a public good, as other shellfish-producing states do, and adopt DOH’s proposed licensing-fee increases.

Biotoxin testing protects public health and a $416 million industry. Greene Economics makes the economic case for funding it as a public good, rather than charging the cost to commercial shellfish operations.