Last summer and this spring Boy Scout Arthur Carlton-Jones (shown here), working in conjunction with researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., was giving away free bloodworms and encouraging fishermen in Maryland to throw their unused bait into the trash. Why? Store-bought fishing worms may be invasive species and the algae or “wormweed” they are packed in also may contain tiny invasive creatures. If discarded in local waters they can have a devastating impact on native plant and animal life. Find out more from SERC’s Shorelines blog. (Photo by Michael Carlton-Jones)
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