Mermaid: A New Decision Support Tool for Managing Shellfish Growing Areas

Mermaid is a new decision support tool for managing shellfish growing areas. It is written in Visual Basic for Application (VBA) language and uses Microsoft Excel for input, calculation, and output modules. The program automatically imports the regulatory agency's data and generates scattergrams that can be used as decision support tools to help decide which shellfish growing areas should be closed and which ones should be open for harvest. The Mermaid program uses the equations developed by the Pearl model that provide more sensitive and accurate measures of sanitation safety for consumption of shellfish, and are more accurate than the U.S. National Standards.