Decline in prized worms threatens way of life

A drop in marine worm populations has left worm rakers without a means of income.

WOOLWICH, MAINE >> Dan Harrington makes his living unearthing marine worms by hacking away at mudflats with a tool that resembles the business end of an old steel rake.

He’s fine with the freezing weather, the pungent aromas and the occasional nip froman angry crab, but his latest problem is the big one— the worms just aren’t there like they used to be.

“A bad day is zero worms,” said Harrington, a second-generation worm raker. “A bad day is when you try out five, six different spots and don’t even make enough money to replenish the gas that you put in your tank.”

Harrington’s struggle, and that of his fellow wormers, has reverberations around the world. A mysterious drop in the harvest of two of the most popular worms for sport fishermen is proving expensive for anglers, perilous for bait shop owners and a threat to a way of life in Maine.

Maine harvesters are by far the U.S.’s largest suppliers of sandworms and bloodworms, twisty, fat critters that can grow longer than a foot and have teeth that inflict a painful bite. Wormers dig the wriggling creatures out of coastal muck so they can be sold to fishermen worldwide. The worms are especially popular with American striped bass fishermen and in Europe. An October study in the journal Fish and Fisheries said bloodworms are the most valuable marine worm species on the retail bait market, and sandworms aren’t far behind.

The worms, which burrow into the mud and eat things like algae and microorganisms, are coveted as bait because they are natural food to some fish.

But the worm falloff has disrupted the supply chain. Maine’s catch of bloodworms has dropped from more than 600,000 pounds in 2004 to less than half that last year. Sandworms dipped by two thirds, to less than 130,000 pounds.

Scientists are struggling to figure out where the worms have gone. Among the factors that could play a role in the decline are rising temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, changes in currents that distribute worm larvae and increased harvesting pressure, said William Ambrose, a Bates College professor and marine researcher.

It’s also possible a growing number of invasive green crabs are preying on the worms, said Brian Beal, a marine ecology professor at the University of Maine at Machias. But Beal and Ambrose say more research is needed to understand what’s going on.

Efforts by the government to intervene have been met with resistance. A committee of the Maine Legislature this year considered a bill that would’ve shut down worm digging for four months a year to help preserve the industry, but it didn’t pass.

The proposal generated skepticism from as far away as the suburbs of Sacramento, California, where Big Red Worm Co. sells worms airmailed from Maine in boxes alongside seaweed and cooling packs.

Shortening the season would be untenable, said operations manager Glenn Chadaris.

“That would pretty much kill every bait shop,” Chadaris said.