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> From: Jenks C. Parker,II <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Empty Canoes
> Date: Thursday, January 08, 1998 9:13 PM
>
> Bruce-
>
> What is a "wormer"?
>
> -Jenks-

Ah-

You think Maine is just lobsters and tall pines and potato fields. Not
only! Wiscasset, Maine, the shire town (county seat) of Lincoln County, and
the nearest culturally congested area (thats how they put it on the
official Maine maps) to little Alna, is the Marine Worm capitol of America.
Wiscasset marine worms are the first choice of live-bait fishermen
world-wide, and reefers carrying the catch (actually, dig) roll out of town
day and night, sometimes even twice a week. Wormers are the guys who stoop
over in mud flats with worm-rakes in their fists and drag the critters out
into the light of day. They are a hard-drinking, hard fighting independent
lot, who's exploits, if local legends are to be believed, make fishermen
sound like girlscouts.

In fact, there ain't many worms left in the Sheepscot near Wiscasset. The
warming of the waters caused by the, thankfully now late, lamented Maine
Yankee Nuclear Power Plant killed them off. It is hoped that with the
plant's demise that the worms will return. But Wiscasset remains the center
of the trade, bringing wormers with bags and snoots full  from up and down
the coast to sell their worms.

Bruce