They’re certainly not the most glamorous of Maine’s marine resources, but last year over $7.9 million worth of baitworms were harvested, making bloodworms and sandworms the state’s fourth-most-valuable fishery – more lucrative even than cod or crab, scallops or sea urchins.
But some worm watchers are concerned that a lack of regulations and scientific understanding of the creatures is leading to a decline that, if ignored, could end in a collapse.
“Not only am I worried that there won’t be any worms left for my children; the way things are going, I’m worried that there won’t be any worms left for my own business,” said Robin Brooks, whose family has been involved in the harvesting and selling of baitworms for over 50 years. “We just don’t know enough about worms to continue harvesting them virtually unrestricted.”
Today, there are 1,000 or so licensed diggers of baitworms in Maine and, for many, the practice is an important component to a collection of agricultural jobs that may also include picking blueberries in the late summer and splitting firewood in the fall. But scientists say that because most of the state’s research funding goes to study more well known species, like lobster and cod, little attention is paid to the biology of marine worms or to the social and economic impacts of the fishery.
Sandworms (Nereis virens) and bloodworms (Glycera dibranchiata) are the two species of commercially valuable baitworms in Maine, which are sold primarily for use in recreational fishing.
Brooks is most concerned about the health of bloodworms – named for their red coloring – that she said are being overharvested in many areas and at too small a size.
“Some diggers are harvesting worms that are only one-inch long, that’s smaller than a lot of the hooks they’re baited on. Today, many dealers – mostly from out of state – pay the same price for a one-inch worm as they will for a 12-inch worm and, as a result, there is no incentive to protect worms before they’ve had a chance to spawn,” said Brooks.
“Unfortunately, it’s a situation where the characteristics of fishery are changing even before we even understand the biological characteristics of the resource,” said Les Watling, a marine scientist at the University of Maine.
A bloodworm digger uses a hoe with nine-inch metal tines attached to a wooden handle. The labor can be backbreaking, with diggers spending up to five or six hours at a time hunched over in knee-high mud. They begin by collecting worms high on a mudflat and follow the receding tide with a yard-wide trench; then reverse direction when the sea returns.
Bloodworms are found in intertidal zones bordering brackish waters and estuaries from Nova Scotia to Florida. In Maine, the Sheepscot Estuary near Wiscasset is an example of productive worm habitat.
The annelids (similar to earthworms and leeches) are thought to be predators, capable of excreting a neurotoxin through their needle-like proboscis into prey, which may include other worms and small crustaceans. Many a wormer has known the discomfort that accompanies a bloodworm bite.
The baitworm fisheries in Maine are largely unregulated. State residents are eligible for a license, which costs $43. Licenses raise around $46,000 annually to fund worm-related research. And worms may only be harvested with “devices or instruments operated solely by hand power,” according to the regulatory bylaw. Additionally, digging is prohibited on Sundays.
A 1991 review of the baitworm fishery by Bets Brown, a biologist at Colby College, found that bloodworm landings were at a maximum between 1960 and 1976, ranging between 140,000 and 215,000 lbs. landed annually. A sharp decline began in the late 1970s with landings ranging between 102,000 lbs. in 1988 and 168,000 lbs. in 1982.
And Brooks said that in eastern Maine, things are only getting worse.
“About 20 years ago, you could harvest 2,000 worms a tide. Now we’re getting, at best, 1,000 worms a tide. Just this past year, we’ve seen landings decrease between 250 and 500 worms a tide,” she said.
Possible explanations for the decline range from the natural cycles of intertidal ecology to over harvesting to mussel dragging, where heavy iron baskets (similar to scallop drags) are pulled across mudflats to scoop up colonies of mussels. Critics argue that the practice damages habitat by scraping away nutrients and sealing off the burrows worms need for food and oxygen.
But scientists, at least for now, have little data to weigh in on the debate.
Peter Thayer, a biologist for Maine’s Department of Marine Resources who now specializes in marine worms, confirms that there has been a decline of worm landings, but said without scientific data to corroborate the apparent trend, it amounts to little more than anecdotal evidence.
“Statistics suggest that there has been a decline in the number of worms and we have received a number of complaints from out-of-state dealers saying that the worms they’ve been getting are much too small. But, without any scientific evidence, we can’t say with any certainty what the cause is – or really even if a decline has occurred,” said Thayer.
Thayer added that mussel draggers and wormers recently reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” to keep drags out of parts of mudflats near the Sheepscot River and farther east, but the unofficial truce has since fallen by the wayside.
This September, Tom Atherton, a graduate student from the University of Maine, who is also a worm digger, will begin the first comprehensive study of Maine’s baitworm fishery since the early 1980s.
For Brooks, who is also the proprietor of Maine Bait, a company that sells baitworms across the country, the forthcoming research is long overdue.
“Both in the amount of money it generates and for the way-of-life it supports, worming is an important part of Maine’s fisheries. If we’re not careful greed is going to ruin this fishery,” she said. t
Michael Crocker is the editor of Collaborations, a report on marine research done cooperatively between commercial fishermen and scientists in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank, published each month by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA). To subscribe to Collaborations email mike@namanet.org or visit NAMA’s website: www.namanet.org.