18 

 17 

 16 

 15 

 14 

 13 

 12 



o_ n 



I 10 



1 » 



8 

 7 

 6 

 5 

 4 







WORM 4 

 WORM 5 



WORM 6 

 WORM 7 



"\ 



WORM 8 



N 



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WORM 9 



-6 O- 







6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 

 TIME, HR 



August and September before attempting to sex sandworms 

 obtained from the commercial catch. During these months potential 

 spawners comprised between 15.6 and 38.3% of the commercial 

 catch. Diggers usually harvested more female sandworms than 

 males. Potential sandworm spawners were found all along the coast 

 of Maine. 



The 6-mo mean shows that approximately 8 % of the catch con- 

 sists of sandworms with regenerated tails. Broken worms com- 

 prised approximately 19-23% of the catch. 



Variations in the mean size of bloodworms and sandworms har- 

 vested between dealers listed in Tables 10 and 1 1 can be explained 

 by: 1) Dealer preference, 2) tidal amplitude, and 3) the length char- 

 acteristics of the local worm populations being harvested on the 

 days commercial samples were obtained. 



Some previous information exists regarding the commercially 

 acceptable size of bloodworms and sandworms harvested in west- 



ern Maine. During March 1966, fourdealers were asked to cull two 

 bloodworm lots and two sandworm lots into commercial and non- 

 commercial size groups. The results are shown in Figure 6. 



Although the commercial length results presented in Figure 6 

 cannot be directly compared with the 6-mo mean lengths recorded 

 for bloodworms and sandworms in Tables 10 and 1 1 (7.5% MgCl : 

 was used to anesthetize the former, 0.2% propylene phenoxytol the 



latter), the results suggest that, had the 1966 bloodworm and sand- 

 worm samples been anesthetized in 0.2% propylene phenoxytol. 

 their mean sizes would probably have been slightly larger than the 

 6-mo mean lengths reported for bloodworms and sandworms dur- 

 ing the 1973-76 sampling program. These data suggest that there 

 may have been a slight decrease in the acceptable size of 

 commercial bloodworms and sandworms harvested between 1966 

 and 1973. 



15 



