The Aquinnah shellfish committee will review residency rules for commercial scallop licenses following the discovery that the current rules are unclear and possibly contradictory.

At the regular selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night the committee requested a meeting with the selectmen in the next month to review the rules.

The discovery of discrepancies in the rules follows an incident two weeks ago when a person who holds a commercial scallop license had his residency status questioned by the shellfish committee. The committee has recommended revoking Wilde Whitcombe’s commercial license, claiming that he does not live in Aquinnah. The selectmen have taken no action on the recommendation and have referred the matter to town counsel, who has not yet issued an opinion. Mr. Whitcombe, who was issued a license by the town, will be allowed to continue scalloping until the dispute is resolved.

This week shellfish committee member William (Buddy) Vanderhoop said the committee is recommending that a person must live in town for at least one year in order to be eligible for a commercial scallop license.

“You have to be able to prove you have lived here consistently for one solid year in order to get a scallop license,” Mr. Vanderhoop said. “We need to make it say what we want it to read so there’s no discrepancies come next season . . . You can’t live in West Tisbury and commute to Aquinnah to go scalloping, that’s totally off the wall but there were some circumstances where that was allowed.”

In other business this week, Jim Sanfillipo told the selectmen he has begun cleaning up the oyster farming site on Menemsha Pond leased by the town to Roxanne Ackerman; he estimates cleanup costs will be around $1,200 to $1,500.

Mr. Sanfillipo was hired by the town after the selectmen were unable to reach an accord with Ms. Ackerman about cleaning up debris at the site that they felt was unsightly and potentially hazardous.

The selectmen plan to bill Ms. Ackerman for the work.

“It’s a sad situation,” said selectman Jim Newman.

“We started the job and we need to finish it,” added selectman Spencer Booker.