Good work Mary!
M. infundibulum is indeed very common in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of
Maine area. It can be found wherever the sand is clean and moderately
coarse. We have seen it in all of our ROV and submersible dives when the
habitat is right, and in fact, in many of these places it is the dominant
animal. Near shore it is taken by scuba divers, usually in areas where
there is some surge, where sand exists between rocky headlands. That's
the good news. The bad news is the worm is very fragile and has to be
collected extremely carefully. Its body is watery and the epidermis is
moderately thin and easily torn. Mary is quite correct about keeping them
in glass tubes. There was an aquaculture project for this beast here at the
Darling Marine Center many years ago and the animal was quite
successfully kept in culture in old lab test tubes. The paper describing the
culture techniques was by David Dean (now deceased) and others and
was published as follows: Dean, D. Chapman, S.R. Chapman, C.S
Reproduction and development of the sabellid polychaete Myxicola
infundibulum. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United
Kingdom. 1987. vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 431-439.
There was an attempt to interest members of the Maine aquaculture
industry as well as others in starting an aquaculture business around this
animal because it was widely used for the just the sort of research
proposed by the original inquiry to this list. At the time the worms were
selling for $15 each. But, no one bit and I have no idea whether such a
culturing business exists.
Hope this helps,
Les.
At 12:18 AM 10/26/00 +0100, Petersen, Mary Elizabeth wrote:
>The Laboratory Culture of Myxicola infundibulum. Vol. 1, N.B. Dept. Fish.
>1977. MacKay, A.A. Discusses culturing methods for a unique species used in
>nerve research.
>>Ecology of Myxicola infundibulum in the Bay of Fundy. Vol. 2, N.B. Dept.
>Fish., 1978. MacKay, A.A. Companion volume to the above.
>$6 ea. US/ $8 Can, $10 set US/ $14 Can
Les Watling
Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation
Professor of Oceanography
Darling Marine Center
University of Maine
193 Clarks Cove Road
Walpole ME 04573
Ph: 207-563-3146, x248
Fax: 207-563-8407
<watling at maine.edu>
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