in Maryland by making 40 observations with a 

 night-light between June and November. No 

 worms appeared at the surface under the light. 



Individual bloodworms occasionally are pelagic 

 when not spawning. Pettibone (1963), when not- 

 ing the sightings of others, reported a bloodworm 

 swimming at the surface of Eel pond. Woods Hole, 

 Mass., on the evening of 17 August 1943; another 

 at the surface perhaps at the same pond on 28 

 January 1876; and another in Delaware Bay on 29 

 January 1957. No time was given for the two 

 January sightings. On 2 October 1969, E. P. 

 Greaser, Jr. sighted a bloodworm at the surface 

 near a dock on McKown Point, Boothbay Harbor, 

 Maine. The large nonspawner was observed at 

 noon swimming during a flood tide. We have found 

 that nonspawning bloodworms may also occur as 

 fairly abundant members of the tychoplankton — 

 bottom dwellers that are either swept upward 

 with tidal currents or migrate upward at night. 

 This study was originally designed to sample lar- 

 val Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus harengus 

 Linnaeus, and these results will be presented la- 

 ter. The implications of a large incidental catch of 

 bloodworms prompted our writing this note. 



Materials and Methods 



The site of this investigation, Sullivan Harbor, 

 is an embayment along the eastern coast of Maine. 

 It is divided into northern and southern sectors by 

 a constriction formed by an island, point of land, 

 and ledges (Figure 1). The southern sector opens 

 onto Frenchman Bay, which in turn opens onto the 

 Gulf of Maine. At its upper end, the northern sec- 

 tor constricts into a tidal falls. A narrow channel 

 extends north of the falls eventually bifurcating 

 into broad extensive shallows. Only small streams 

 enter these shallows about 5 km north of the 

 highway bridge. Sullivan Harbor is thus rela- 

 tively saline (31-32%o). 



Six sampling stations were located within the 

 northern sector of the harbor; two in the landward 

 end of the channel (No. 3, 4), two in the seaward 

 end (No. 1,2), and one at each seaward entrance to 

 the subtidal flats (No. 5, 6). At each station within 

 the channel, four lines of buoyed and anchored 

 nets were set (Graham and Venno 1968). On each 

 line one net fished near the surface and a second at 

 3 m just above the edge (4 m) of the subtidal chan- 

 nel (Figure 1). A third net fished below the edge at 

 10 m and a fourth near the bottom (12-20 m). At 

 the entrance to the subtidal flats, one net was 



suspended near the surface and another at 3 m just 

 above the bottom. 



The nets were set at each station at dusk and 

 retrieved at dawn, fishing approximately one tidal 

 cycle. Calibrated meters centered within the nets 

 determined the amount of water strained. The 

 contents of the nets were preserved in the field 

 using a 5% Formalin^ solution. The sexes of the 

 worms were determined at a later date by inspec- 

 tion of the coelomic contents. Since variable 

 shrinkage of the worms made length measure- 

 ments unreliable, dry weight was obtained for 

 each worm. 



Results 



The nets strained 72 bloodworms from tidal cur- 

 rents during 6 of 10 cruises in autumn and winter 

 1974-75. During 1974, the nets captured 2 worms 

 on 14 October, 7 on 1 1 November, 2 on 5 December, 

 51 on 10 December, and 1 on 19 December. During 

 1975, the nets captured nine worms on 2 De- 

 cember. Only five worms were immature; their 

 weights varied from 0.02 to 0. 1 1 g. Mature females 

 outnumbered mature males about two to one 

 (41:24). The mean weights of the two sexes were 

 similar, 0.57 g, and their range varied from 0. 1 1 to 

 1.47 g. 



Bloodworms were dispersed throughout the 

 water column and over both the channel and sub- 

 tidal flats. Nets at all stations and depths captured 

 worms. The average number netted was three and 

 ranged from one to seven. Of the 72 worms from all 

 cruises, nets set in the channel contained 58 

 worms and those over the subtidal flats held 14. 

 Their numbers decreased vertically: 33 near the 

 surface, 17 at 3 m, 15 at 10 m, and 7 near the 

 bottom. 



An exceptionally large catch per unit effort was 

 obtained on 10 December. During the 10 cruises 

 the nets strained approximately 8,000 to 20,000 

 m^ of tidal water per cruise. Five of the sets yielded 

 catch rates varying from 0. 1 to 0.7 worm/1,000 m^. 

 A sixth set (10 December) yielded 3.38 worms/ 

 1,000 m^. This catch rate was sufficiently large to 

 permit comparison of synoptic catch rates with 

 location and depth. The four lines of nets in the 

 channel strained 39 worms from 10,194 m^, yield- 

 ing a catch rate of 3.8 worms/1,000 m^ Those nets 



^Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



481 



