coasts. Although the fishery grew rapidly during the 30 yr prior to 

 1976 and developed into one of the top five commercial fisheries 

 (landed value) in Maine, it was not until the advent of the State- 

 Federal aid program (RL. 88-309) that the State obtained funding 

 to collect detailed catch, effort, and catch per effort data for the 

 fishery. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The sandworm was first recorded as Nereis grandis from the mud 

 flats of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada, in the Bay 

 of Fundy by Stimpson (1854). Nereis grandis was identified at 

 Eastport, Maine, by Verrill (1871). Webster and Benedict (1887) 

 reported Nereis virens as being very common in mud and sandy 

 mud during low water in the vicinity of Eastport. Nereis virens has 

 been reported from the western Atlantic along the U.S. coast from 

 Virginia to Maine and in Canada from New Brunswick, Nova Sco- 

 tia, the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Newfoundland (Pettibone 1963), 

 and Labrador (Miner 1950). It has been reported from the eastern 

 Atlantic to Iceland and Ireland and in the North Sea to France. It is 

 also found in Norway (Pettibone 1963) and in the White Sea of 

 Russia (Sveshnikov 1955). 



The bloodworm was first recorded as Rhynchobolus dibranchi- 

 ata from Eastport, Maine, by Verrill (1874). Glycera dibranchiata 

 has been reported from Prince Edward Island (MacPhail 1954), the 

 Gulf of the St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick south 

 through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 

 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to Florida (Pet- 

 tibone 1963) and the West Indies (Hartman 1944). In the Gulf of 

 Mexico it is found from Florida to Texas (Pettibone 1963) and on 

 the Pacific coast from Mazatlan, Mexico (Hartman 1950), north 

 including Lower California (Pettibone 1963) to San Mateo County. 

 Calif. (Hartman 1950). 



HABITAT (SANDWORMS) 



The sandworm is especially common in sheltered flats bordering 

 the mouths of rivers, estuaries, and sounds (Pettibone 1963). 

 Although sandworms can be found throughout the intertidal zone, 

 they are commercially abundant in the coarse and fine muddy sands 

 near the low water mark. Ganaros 4 reported that in the early 1940 s. 

 commercial sandworm diggers recalled that they could collect 

 worms of commercial quality and quantity close to shore, thus sug- 

 gesting that sandworms may have become depleted in the upper 

 intertidal zone. In addition to being found in coarse and fine muddy 

 sand, sandworms are often found under cobbles and large rocks 

 along the shore, jetties, and piers, in marsh thatch, under or near 

 mussel beds, in gravelly sand and clay, in water soaked wood, and 

 among the roots of decaying marsh grass and eelgrass (Pettibone 

 1963). Crowder (1923) reported that young sandworms have been 

 found in old sea shells and within the fronds of Ulva. At certain 

 times of the year, sandworms of all sizes can be found swimming 

 free in the river channels (Dean 1978a; Graham 5 ). They have also 

 been dredged to a depth of 154 m (Pettibone 1963). 



In soft mud. the sandworm burrows to depths of 7^45 cm with 

 the largest specimens usually found at the greatest depths (Petti- 



bone 1963). Commercial sandworm diggers first remove the top 13 

 cm of soft mud and then dig down about 25 cm farther to reach 

 these commercial quantities of large worms (Glidden 6 ). In certain 

 types of mud, the burrows are well defined on the mud surface and 

 aid the diggers in locating areas of high concentration (Fairser- 

 vice 7 ). The burrows themselves are lined with an adhesive mucus 

 that binds the walls (Crowder 1923). Several burrows often inter- 

 sect so that any burrow may have several openings. The rhythmic 

 undulations of the sandworm create a current of water through the 

 burrow which supplies the worms' respiratory needs. The current 

 of oxygen-rich water also results in the formation of a visible red 

 iron oxide residue in the sediment immediately adjacent to the bur- 

 row (Pedrick 8 ). 



Brafield" has indicated that the water and intertidal salinity 

 encountered by the Southend, England, sandworm population var- 

 ied between 28 and 32% and 27.5 and 31.5% , respectively, and 

 the water temperature varied between 3.2°C (January) and 22.5°C 

 (August). Gosner (1971) reported that sandworms are capable of 

 withstanding salinity as low as 10% and Mazurkiewicz 10 found the 

 lower salinity tolerance of sandworms to be 5% . During a study of 

 the sandworm population at Wiscasset. Maine (Creaser and Clif- 

 ford"), the surface water salinity varied between 17.3 and 28.9% 

 and the surface river temperature varied between -1.4° and 

 15.3°C. The bottom river salinity varied between 23.8 and 29.3% 

 and bottom river temperature varied between -1.2° and 14.3°C. 

 The interstitial mud temperature for this area varied between 

 + 0.3° and 15.6°C. The range of temperatures recorded for the 

 sandworm population at Brandy Cove, New Brunswick (Snow 

 1972). are very similar to those recorded above for the Wiscasset 

 studies. More recent salinity and temperature studies (Creaser et 

 al. 12 ) at the site of the Wiscasset sandworm work, have yielded sur- 

 face and bottom salinities ranging between 9.7 and 30.8% and 

 10.0 and 31.6% , respectively, and surface and bottom tempera- 

 tures ranging between -1.3° and 20.1°C and -1.6° and 19.7°C, 

 respectively. 



The complete analysis of sediments from coastwide marine 

 worm growing areas is lacking. Pedrick (footnote 8). however, ana- 

 lyzed the sandworm sediment within DMR's closed marine worm 

 conservation area at Wiscasset, Maine, foranumberof parameters. 

 The results, presented in Table 1, demonstrate that the sediment in 

 the closed area is primarily a silty clay and the concentrations of the 

 seven heavy metals tested decrease with depth. 



■•Ganaros. A. 1951. Commercial worm digging. Maine Dep. Sea Shore Fish. 

 Bull., Augusta. 6 p. 



M. J. Graham. Marine resources scientisl. Maine Department of Marine 

 Resources Research Laboratory, West Boothbay Harbor. ME 04575. pens, commun. 

 June 1974. 



Xjlidden. P. E. 1951. Three commercially important polychaete marine worms 

 from Maine: Nereis {Neanthas) virens, Glycera dibranchiata. Glycera americana . 

 A report to the Maine Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries, Augusta. 4 p. 



7 S. Fairscrvice. marine worm digger, Wiscasset. ME 04578, pers. commun. 

 March 1977. 



S R. A. Pedrick, Coordinator, Environmental Impact Statements, Natl. Mar. Fish. 

 Sen. NOAA. Wash.. DC 20230. pers. commun. April 1976. 



9 A. E. Brafield. Queen Elizabeth College. London, England, pers. commun. July 

 1968. 



">M. Mazurkiewicz. Assistant Professor, University of Maine, Portland. ME 

 04103. pers. commun. June 1977. 



"Creaser. E. P.. and D. A. Clifford. 1981. Life history studies on the sandworm. 

 Nereis virens Sars, in the Sheepscol estuary, Maine. Maine Dep. Mar. Res. Lab. 

 Res. Ref. Doc. 81/16. 37 p. 



'^Creaser, E. P.. Jr.. D. C. Clifford, and M. J. Hogan. 1978. Hydrographic data 

 report Part II. Salinity and temperature data obtained from simultaneous stations at 

 Bluff Head and Long Ledge (Montsweag Bay. Maine) and the Wiscasset Bridge 

 (Wiscasset. Maine) 1970-1976. Maine Dep. Mar. Res. Lab. Res. Ref. Doc. 78/12. 

 167 p. 



