The demand for worms created conflicts between commercial worm diggers resulting in the implementation of a licensing system to control harvest. The licence was implemented to deal with problems down in the tidal flats of the Minas Basin where a number of commercial worm diggers make their living digging worms. This demand has helped fuel an industry which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimated is worth $4 million a year in Nova Scotia. They are a very popular bait for saltwater anglers in Europe and the United States where anglers are willing to pay up to one dollar per worm. Blood worms get their name from a bright red streak which runs down their back. They are not to be sold, traded or bartered.īlood worm is the name given to one of a variety of marine worms found on the East Coast which includes sand worms and clam worms. However, on the east side of Cape Breton, in the Scotia-Fundy, or Maritimes Region, from Cape North down to Port Hawkesbury, a licence is required to dig sand worms for your own use.

On the gulf side of Cape Breton no licence is required to dig or possess sand worms. I made a call to the local office of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and they told me that, yes, depending where you are, a licence may be required if you want to dig for marine worms. Since I don't use them myself I hadn't given much thought to it but I told him I'd check on it for him. I received a phone call the other day from a friend who wanted to know about the regulations regarding the use of sand, or blood worms, for bait.Ī few years ago the Department of Fisheries and Oceans brought in a requirement that people digging sand worms for bait required a recreational sand worm harvesting licence.

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