CONTENTS 



Introduction 1 



Distribution 2 



Habitat (sandworms) 2 



Habitat (bloodworms) 3 



History of the marine worm fishery 3 



Worm digging 4 



Marine worm hoes 5 



Packing and shipping medium 5 



Present marine worm markets 6 



Materials and methods 6 



Marine worm sampling program 6 



Selection of commercial sampling period 6 



Primary sampling unit 7 



Secondary sampling units 7 



Digger interview 7 



Sampling the catch 8 



Processing the samples 8 



Compilation of interview and cluster sampling information 8 



Statistics 8 



Verification of sampling procedures and responses to interview questions 10 



Yield-effort curves 12 



Results and discussion 12 



Digger interview 12 



Sampling the catch 12 



Processing the samples 12 



Verification of sampling procedures and interview responses 13 



Commercial sampling for length, weight, sex, and condition 13 



Length and weight frequency samples 17 



Probability sampling expansions and ratios estimates 17 



Catch statistics 31 



Length-wet weight relationships 31 



Numbers of bloodworms and sandworms per pound 31 



Estimates of marine worm age 31 



Yield-effort curves 46 



Miscellaneous information obtained from sampling interview 51 



Digging frequency 51 



Digging experience 51 



Age of marine worm diggers 51 



Percentage of day and nighttime digging '52 



Percentage of male and female worm diggers 52 



Decline of bloodworm landings after 1975 52 



Suggestions for improving future marine worm sampling programs 52 



Acknowledgments 54 



Literature cited 54 



Appendix A 56 



Figures 



1 . Marine worm hoes commonly used by commercial diggers 5 



2. Bloodworm and sandworm landings in numbers reported monthly for the period 1965-76 7 



3. Marine worm sampling locations along the Maine coast 1973-76 8 



4. The time required for assorted sizes of bloodworms and sandworms to acclimate to 32%o 14-15 



5. The relationship of natural length to anesthetized length 16 



6. Assorted bloodworms and sandworms culled into commercial and noncommercial sizes by four dealers in western Maine. . . 22 



7. Sexed length frequency data obtained from monthly samplings of the commercial bloodworm catch 23-26 



8. Sexed length frequency data obtained from monthly samplings of the commercial sandworm catch 27-30 



9. Sexed length frequency data from combined monthly samplings of the commercial bloodworm catch collected between April 



and September of each year (1973-76) 32-33 



10. Sexed length frequency data from combined monthly samplings of the commercial sandworm catch collected between April 



and September of each year (1973-76) 34-35 



