Gulf of Maine Times

Editor's Notes

Alice Galley and the great bait worm debate

By Andi Rierden

Not long ago I visited Bramber, Nova Scotia, seaside to the Minas Basin, to meet Alice Galley. I had read an editorial in a Hants County newspaper she wrote about the impacts of bloodworm harvesting on local beaches and admired its grit. I also knew she helped stage a demonstration late last summer to protest worm overharvesting on Cheverie Beach, the site of the province’s first community-based salt marsh restoration project. Alice was someone I just had to meet. So one late fall day I motored down Route 215 until I came to the 19th farmhouse, accented by bright red shutters, Alice shares with her husband Harry.

Over hot coffee and sugar cookies, Alice and I chatted for a good part of the afternoon about beaches, bloodworms, birds and some. At 87 years old, she remains the proverbial driving force behind many local initiatives. Her relentless telephoning and campaigning brought about the creation of a war memorial and a badly needed health center, built mostly from the sweat of volunteers. The center now services 14 communities.

There were vivid stories, too, about Cheverie Beach and its vast mudflats, when few people besides the locals paid them much mind. Long a source of sustenance and pleasure for the area, Alice says the beach is threatened by modern realities.

“When I was a child the beach was part of your life,” she says. “As local people we dug our own clams and fished for our own fish with just a hand line. Now we have no clams—the commercial clammers came here and dug them out 25 years ago. And the clams never regenerated. Now they’re coming in here from away and digging the worms all out and selling them in the U.S.”

The bloodworm (Glycera dib- ranchiata) belongs to a phylum of animals known as the Annelids. They have been harvested year-round for decades in Nova Scotia by digging with hand tools in the shallow mudflats. The worms grow to 17-inches long and come equipped with a snout that is armed with four poisonous jaws. Many a careless worm digger or fisherman has felt their painful bite

According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), more than $4 million worth of worms are harvested every year here for use largely in sport fishing in the United States. The depletion of bloodworms in pockets of the province, coupled with a brawl in 2001 among rival bloodworm groups fighting over territory, prompted the department to set up rules for the industry. Three years ago it approved exploratory licences for marine worm harvesting along the south and west shores of Nova Scotia which includes beaches in Hants County.

Alice and other residents worry that digging for the prized bait is upsetting the natural habitat and destroying Cheverie Beach as harvesters turn up the mud flats. This at a time when community leaders are trying to build an economic base through sustainable tourism. Cheverie’s salt marsh, beach and mud flats are the centerpieces for a coastal education initiative for local school children and tourists.

As someone who has observed the mudflats all of her life, Alice says that the habitat damage caused by bait-digging, if not managed well, can destroy other organisms and result in less food for migratory birds. Studies suggest the same.

“There used to be slews of sand peeps [semipalmated sandpipers]. I can remember when you’d walk along the beach and they’d rise up like a cloud,” she told me.

After visiting with Alice I phoned Hazel Dill, a member of the Hants Shore Concerned Citizens Action Group and recipient of a recent environmental stewardship award from the provincial Department of Environment and Labour. As the principal at the local elementary school, Hazel has spent years cultivating an appreciation of coastal habitats among her students and has championed the restoration work at Cheverie’s salt marsh. She echoed Alice’s concerns about worm harvesting. “We need to know: Is this a manageable fishery? Is it sustainable? What are the long-term costs? As local people we feel we should have a say in how our coastal areas are treated.”

The next week, Hazel, Alice, Harry and other members of the citizens’ group drove down to Cornwallis to meet with federal fisheries officials and bloodworm harvesters. For several hours the two groups sat around a long table and volleyed their concerns. Bob Miller, a DFO scientist who is conducting surveys along the mudflats as part of a rotating closure scheme, said it was the first time he could remember that a citizens group had been involved in a fisheries advisory committee.

Miller showed graphs, which some of the worm harvesters disputed, that measured the declines and increases of the worms in areas of bait digging. “The science is not perfect,” he said, adding that he needed more time before drawing any conclusions. He invited the worm harvesters and the citizens to come along with his team when they survey the mudflats. Both groups agreed that management of the bait digging had improved since the government got involved.

Prior to the meeting the harvesters and the citizens’ group submitted recommendations to DFO. While they agreed on most of the proposed closures and openings, the harvesters drew the line at the citizens’ request to close Cheverie Beach to worm harvesting July and August to give the sandpipers space and plenty of food to fuel up. Hazel Dill added they’d like to protect the beach to draw ecology-minded tourisms to help boost the local economy.

At that, one harvester commented: “I don’t see how you can say we’re bad for tourism. The tourists seem to like taking pictures of some guy on the beach holding a bucket of worms that bite.”

The DFO moderator for the session said the department would review all recommendations before deciding on a permanent management scheme.

Earlier, Alice had said she would like to see DFO, given its limited enforcement resources, work with her community to manage the beach. She envisions a local board to oversee the activities and create a plan that will safeguard the ecosystem for generations to come. “If this community can build its own health center, we can certainly take care of our beaches,” she said.