RAGWORMS UNLIMITED
By Anthony Toole.
Peter Cowin reached into a sack for a handful of what looked like crumbs of dried mud, but smelled a lot worse. He flung this into one of several large tanks of water. I watched it settle onto the black sediment. After a few seconds, several dozen flat, pink, feathery-edged creatures, each a few centimetres long, emerged from the silt, zeroed in on various morsels and retreated with their catch, leaving only small holes to mark their disappearance.
“Feel the water,“ Peter invited. I interrupted the flow of one of the jets that squirted from a hole in a pipe circling the top of the tank. Despite the chill of the November day, the water was warm.
Elsewhere, workers waded knee-deep in similar tanks. One sat with arms immersed up to the elbows, steering a wide tube around the floor of his tank. The other end of the tube gushed wet sludge into a basin from which others lifted handfuls of wriggling invertebrates.
The ragworm is a humble, unlovely creature. To most of us it is represented by a curly mound on a stretch of wet sand as we walk along a beach at low tide. To Peter Cowin, what began in childhood as a piece of bait on the end of a fishing hook has grown into an expanding international business with a potential annual turnover of several million pounds.
While studying Marine Biology at Newcastle University, in 1981, Peter carried out a research project into the breeding of ragworms. He continued this research after graduation, and the idea for commercial development, as a source of bait for sea anglers, took root. With encouragement and support from his research supervisor, Dr Peter Olive, now Head of Marine Science at Newcastle, he raised loans and grants totalling £250 000 and set up Seabait Ltd in 1985, as the world’s first ragworm farm. Commercial production began two years later.
The traditional method of ragworm collection involves professional diggers, or even the anglers themselves, digging the worms from the beaches and mud flats. This can only be done at low tide and is seasonally dependent upon the worms’ breeding cycle. As the practice became more widespread, environmentalists expressed concern as to the effects this might have on foreshore ecology and the populations of birds that depend on this ecology.
As worms are near the base of the food chain, any significant depletion in their numbers would have a devastating effect higher up the chain.
There was also the problem of increased coastal erosion that may be caused by excessive digging.
From the anglers’ point of view, the quality of worms dug from the wild was often poor and the supply variable. Worms imported to fill the shortfall might also introduce diseases against which the native species had little or no immunity.
As a result of their research, Peter Cowin and Peter Olive concluded that they could answer these problems. The key to success was to be found in setting up their factory next to the Alcan power station in Lynemouth, Northumbria. The sea water used for cooling purposes at the station, together with its waste heat, could be recycled into the tanks. This would maintain a steady 25 degree centigrade temperature all year round, ideal for the breeding and nurturing of ragworms.
In the first year, the farm suffered an 80% loss of its stock. This was traced to unforeseen problems with the power station water, and was quickly remedied. By this year, production had risen to 30 tonnes and is set to top 50 tonnes next year.
Success has brought Seabait numerous awards, including the Queen’s Award for Environmental Achievement and the Barclays Northern Business Environment Award.
The company at present employs 24 workers on the farm and sponsors three PhD students at Newcastle University, all researching various aspects of the life cycle of marine worms.
About 50% of Seabait’s production goes to the angling market. Optimum conditions on the farm mean that the growth and breeding cycle can be reduced from two years to as little as five months. Harvesting techniques have been developed that keep loss to a minimum. Small or damaged worms are returned to the tanks for further growth, and harvesting at a later date. Refrigerated storage, prior to delivery, ensures that the bait remain in good condition for as long as a week after harvesting.
The result is that Seabait has acquired a reputation for reliability and the consistent supply of high quality ragworms.
Fish farming is an industry of increasing importance. Ragworms contain high concentrations of polyunsaturated fats, and are therefore an ideal source of food for aquaculture. Seabait’s ragworms contain twice as much of these fats as their wild counterparts, so the company now exports half its produce to fish farms in Central and South America and around the Mediterranean.
Fungal diseases among shrimps in Ecuadorean farms have been traced to the use of local worms as feed. By supplying these shrimp farms, Seabait has successfully cut what was a recurrent cycle of infection. Exports to Greece and Spain have proved valuable in farms specialising in bream and sea bass.
The health of ragworms has been demonstrated to be an indicator of pollution levels in sea water. A small, though increasing proportion of Seabait’s produce is now being employed in research in this field and in the monitoring of water quality.
Recent work sponsored by the company at Newcastle University has focussed on the cryogenic storage of larvae and methods of growth stimulation. This has produced some very good science with the potential for application to other fields of biological research.
The technology of its invertebrate aquaculture has now reached the point where Seabait is able to offer its expertise, on licence, elsewhere. The entire production package, consisting of everything from design to marketing, is on offer, together with access to all the fruits of future research and development.
The factors that have led to Seabait’s success include concern for the environment, the efficient use of energy and an emphasis on continued scientific research. That these have been shown to turn a profit perhaps gives some pointers as to the directions in which future industries might evolve.