taining 581 bloodworms and a hod containing 1,041 sandworms 

 were sampled as previously reported. The worms obtained in the 

 sampling process were anesthetized, measured, weighed, and then 

 returned to the original bucket or hod. After the worms had 

 revived, the procedure was repeated a total of 10 times. The results 

 obtained from these length and weight measurements on blood- 

 worm and sandworm samples were then compared with the mean 

 length of all measurable (461) and weighable (581) bloodworms in 

 the bucket, and all measurable (779) and weighable (1,041) sand- 

 worms in the hod. 



The digger responses to several questions asked during the sam- 

 pling interview were routinely checked for accuracy. The total 

 worm count dug and reported to the sampler by the digger was 

 checked against the number reported on the dealer's record sheet 

 (the number of worms the digger was actually paid for). The dig- 

 ger's response to questions dealing with the time digging began and 

 ended on a given tide was compared with the actual digging time 

 observed and recorded by the sampler for that digger from a con- 

 cealed position along the shore. 



Yield-Effort Curves 



We chose to sample the diggers just prior to entering the dealer 

 buying locations for several reasons. First, we did not desire to 

 interfere with the dealers handling practices and procedures. Sec- 

 ond, the inclusion of cull worms in the sampling procedure is desir- 

 able because the vast majority of the culls were never returned to 

 the flats alive; they were either discarded in the "discard" bucket, 

 along the road side, or they were dumped on the flats or in the water 

 where they were rapidly consumed by sea gulls and fish. Our 

 commercial sampling therefore reveals what is lost from the natural 

 population through commercial digging and it includes both com- 

 mercially acceptable worms and a small percentage of cull worms 

 that will be discarded and wasted. Our commercial sampling results 

 indicate that bloodworm culls comprise 3.0-4.6% and sandworm 

 culls comprise 2.6-5. 1 % of the worm catch brought into the cellar. 

 The net result is that the mean lengths recorded from our samplings 

 of the catch are actually slightly smaller (they contain length mea- 

 surements for cull worms that would be discarded and wasted dur- 

 ing the normal handling procedure in the cellar) than the mean size 

 of worms shipped out of state. 



Processing the Samples 



License and landings data used in bloodworm and sandworm 

 yield-effort curves were obtained from DMR license records and 

 U.S. Department of Commerce (1946-80) (for the appropriate 

 years). Landings data reported in pounds in U.S. Department of 

 Commerce (1946-80) were converted back into numbers using the 

 appropriate conversion factors. 



RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 



Digger Interview 



The proper use of a sampling fraction, in both the digger inter- 

 view and the commercial sampling, requires that the diggers are 

 approaching the cellar in random fashion. This requirement is prob- 

 ably met when one considers that some diggers dig for long periods 

 and other dig for short periods, regardless of the distance between 

 the digging site and the dealer buying locations. The use of a ran- 

 domly selected choice of diggers has one advantage in that if the 

 diggers were approaching the cellar in some sort of order, the order 

 would in no way affect the selection of a random sample. For rea- 

 sons of simplicity, the use of a sampling fraction was also the only 

 logical choice; the act of interviewing different fractions of blood- 

 worm and sandworm diggers as they were both entering and leav- 

 ing the worm cellar simultaneously, was already complicated 

 enough. 



Acclimation of all worm samples to high salinity water prior to 

 anesthetization and measurement was necessary because the length 

 and weight of marine worms vary with salinity. Preliminary inves- 

 tigations revealed that some marine worms had either been dug 

 from varying salinity conditions or had been exposed to additional 

 dilution by the diggers for varying periods of time prior to our 

 obtaining them (Table 7). This practice of "watering down" the 

 worms is prevalent among bloodworm diggers and rare among 

 sandworm diggers. Although salinities as low as 10% have rarely 

 been recorded from bloodworm bucket water, it is highly unlikely 

 that the worms themselves are dug very often from mud of this 

 salinity because salinity tolerance experiments conducted previ- 

 ously (Creaser 50 ) showed that bloodworms are stressed after expo- 

 sure to 10% for 24 h. Experiments designed to measure the time 

 required for bloodworms to acclimate to a standard lab line salinity 

 of 3 1— 33% from a lower salinity were initiated at a salinity of 

 approximately 16% because we did not wish to stress the blood- 

 worms. Although sandworm diggers rarely "water down" their 

 worms, an initial starting salinity of 16% was also used in similar 

 sandworm experiments. The results of these acclimation experi- 

 ments on bloodworms and sandworms are presented in Figure 4. 

 The results in Figure 4 show that bloodworms required as much as 

 10 h and sandworms required as much as 16-18 h to completely 

 acclimate to high salinity after being dug and transported under the 

 conditions reported. In view of the facts that: 1) The experiments in 



Sampling the Catch 



We attempted to limit ourselves to collecting marine worm sam- 

 ples from a maximum of 15 diggers (at 25 worms/digger) per dealer 

 buying location because of the time involved in processing 375 

 worms for length, weight, and sex. Occasionally, when the larger 

 dealers were sampled, we were unable to determine how many 

 bloodworm or sandworm diggers would be arriving at the cellar 

 w ith worms during the sampling period and we had to estimate, on 

 the basis of past experience, w hat sampling fraction to use for both 

 species without exceeding a total of 15 samples. In some cases we 

 were successful and approximately 15 samples were obtained. At 

 other times, our estimates were erroneous and either more or fewer 

 than 15 samples were obtained. 



?0 Creaser, E. P.. Jr. 1971. Biological, environmental and technological research 

 on marine worms. Project 3-16-R Completion Report covering the period 

 1966-1971. Dep. Sea Shore Fish., Slate House Annex, Capitol Shopping Center. 

 Augusta. ME 04333. 224 P 



Table 7. — The salinity content of water obtained from the hods and buckets of 

 marine worm diggers and used in transporting bloodworms and sandworms 

 from the flats to the dealer. 



Dealer 



Date 



Number of 



Bloods (B) 



Mean 



1 standard 



code 



(1972) 



samples 



or sands (S) 



salinity (% ) 



error (% ) 



L-4 



4/24 



19 



BandS 



16.09 



+ 1.02 



L-5 



4/24 



7 



BandS 



21.33 



+ 2.26 



L-6 



5/07 



13 



S 



26.61 



+ 0.87 



L-6 



5/07 



5 



B 



20.06 



+ 3.77 



W-18 



5/02 



14 



BandS 



20.29 



±0.81 



12 



