Saving Seafood

MAINE: Decline in Prized Worms Threatens Way of Life

April 27, 2017 — Dan Harrington makes his living unearthing marine worms by hacking away at mudflats with a tool that resembles the business end of an old steel rake.

He’s fine with the freezing weather, the pungent aromas and the occasional nip from an angry crab, but his latest problem is the big one — the worms just aren’t there like they used to be.

“A bad day is zero worms,” said Harrington, a second-generation worm raker. “A bad day is when you try out five, six different spots and don’t even make enough money to replenish the gas that you put in your tank.”

Harrington’s struggle, and that of his fellow wormers, has reverberations around the world. A mysterious drop in the harvest of two of the most popular worms for sport fishermen is proving expensive for anglers, perilous for bait shop owners and a threat to a way of life in Maine.

Maine harvesters are by far the U.S.’s largest suppliers of sandworms and bloodworms, twisty, fat critters that can grow longer than a foot and have teeth that inflict a painful bite. Wormers dig the wriggling creatures out of coastal muck so they can be sold to fishermen worldwide.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

Declining worm harvest poses challenge for diggers, scientists

February 27, 2017 — It’s a dirty job, but digging for blood and sand worms along the Maine coast can pay well, particularly in areas of the state where it can be hard to make a living. Maine’s annual harvest of these popular bait worms, however, continues to decline, posing a quandary for marine biologists who cite climate change and predation as possible factors.

Wormers, as they’re called, would like to work with marine biologists to ensure a healthy and robust industry.

As he walks across the mud flats off Beals Island, worm digger Donnie Bayrd feels the suction of silt pull at his boots. He twists each foot slightly from side to side to prevent the mud from closing in around his boot — an occupational hazard that has brought down more than one wormer into the muddy flats.

Bayrd says it’s worth the trouble to brave the fragrant and unforgiving mud flats of Washington County in search of these creatures, which can also bite. Sport fishermen, he says, pay to have the worms flown around the world and have been known to try and make them last.

“They cut these up in pieces and fish with them. The bigger the worm, the better they like it because they can get a half-dozen pieces out of them,” he says.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News