This is getting bad. As I mentioned recently, Maryland biologists had to deal with the find of a northern snakehead in an area pond. The carnivorous Chinese fish has a voracious appetite and can crawl from pond to pond on its fins in search of new prey. Now biologists are worried about the “Vietnamese nuclear worm” and what effect it could have on the Chesapeake Bay’s ecology. Apparently fishermen are using the worm for bait and dumping whatever they don’t use. Officials are worried that the worm could carry and spread bacteria into Maryland waters: you know it’s bad when a biologist says, “I’ve handled a lot of things, and I don’t get creeped out. But these are nasty. I use surgical gloves every time I touch them, and I scrub up afterward.” Great. For a state known for its crabs, rockfish, and marine industry, I had no idea that “Maryland has few restrictions on bait importation and relies on fish stocking regulations to control the release of non-native species.”