L- 



4,5,6,8,25 



WISCASSET 



L- 



1 



BOOTHBAY 



L- 



2,26 



EDGECOMB 



L- 



9 



NEWCASTLE 



K- 



29 



WARREN 



H 



28,30 



BLUE HILL 



H 



10 



ELLSWORTH 



H- 



27,31 



FRANKLIN 



H 



14 



SULLIVAN 



H- 



■11,12 



HANCOCK 



H 



15 



S. GOULDSBORO 



W 



-16,17,18 



MILBRIDGE 



W 



19,20,21,22,25 ADDISON 



W 



-23 



JONESPORT 



w 



-24 



BEALS ISLAND 



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



Sampling the Catch 



We attempted to collect worm samples from a maximum of 15 

 diggers at each dealer sampling location. Each sample contained 25 

 bloodworms or sandworms. Samples of marine worms were 

 obtained directly from the diggers bucket or hod prior to his enter- 

 ing the worm cellar and therefore contained worms of commercial 

 value as well as culls. 



Bloodworm diggers virtually always transported their worms to 

 the buying locations in plastic or stainless steel buckets. The con- 

 tents of each bucket sample were stirred with a small paddle and 

 while the water and worms were in motion, a fine meshed tropical 

 fish net was used to obtain a sample from the bucket. Sandworm 

 diggers transported their worms to the buying locations in round 5 

 gal plastic pails or in rectangular wooden hods. Usually, these con- 

 tainers held great quantities of worms in as little water as possible. 

 It was not possible to stir the contents of these containers with a 

 paddle without breaking the sandworms. Therefore the contents 

 were mixed by reaching into the bottom of the container with both 

 hands and gently drawing the bottom worms upward. After doing 

 this three or four times in one area of the container, the sample was 

 withdrawn with cupped hands. Samples of bloodworms and sand- 

 worms obtained in the above manner were deposited into a narrow 

 wooden tray from which a random cluster of 25 bloodworms or 

 sandworms was counted out. The remaining worms were returned 

 to the digger. 



Processing the Samples 



The 25-worm samples of bloodworms or sandworms were 

 immediately placed into containers of high salinity water 

 (31-33% ) after being collected at the sampling location. When 



sampling was completed, the worms were transported to the labo- 

 ratory and placed into trays with porous fiberglass screen bottoms 

 floating in tanks of high-salinity flowing seawater. They remained 

 in these trays until completely acclimated— a period of at least 24 h. 



Bloodworms were anesthetized in 0.2% propylene phenoxytol. 

 The breakage of sandworms was reduced to an absolute minimum 

 by first briefly placing the sandworms in 0. 1 % propylene phenoxy- 

 tol to quiet them down and then the 0. 1 % mixture was replaced 

 with 0.2%. When completely anesthetized, the worms were mea- 

 sured in a V-shaped measuring trough while submerged in anes- 

 thetic. Their weight, sex, and condition (broken, punctured, 

 regenerated) were also recorded. 



Sex was determined during April and May for bloodworms and 

 during August and September for sandworms. Sex was distin- 

 guished from a sample of the coelomic fluid withdrawn with a cap- 

 illary pipette and examined under a microscope. 



Unanesthetized length measurements in the natural state were 

 derived from a photograph taken while the worms were immersed 

 in a seawater bath containing a 15 cm rule. 



Compilation of Interview and 

 Cluster Sampling Information 



The information compiled by digger from the interviews and 

 cluster samples is presented in Table 5. The information recorded in 

 Table 5A was then summarized for each dealer daylight low-tide 

 period sampled and recorded in the form shown in Table 6. 



Statistics 



All formulas used to calculate: 1) Individual, monthly, and 6-mo 

 means, variances, and standard errors, 2) monthly and 6-mo proba- 



