By Anne Vinther Morant, 7 January 2025

Book recommenda-tion for whitefish enthusiasts

While some of you might have spent the Holidays catching up on Netflix series, romantic literature, or crime novels, yours truly, a.k.a. Hermione, has been nerding through the biography of the cod!

 

This humorous and insightful biography takes you through the history of the cod and especially it’s number one predator - the fishermen - who crossed the Atlantic to the fishing grounds off North America (way before Columbus claimed to ‘discover’ the same continent) to bring back salted cod for the southern European catholics who were expected to abstain from meat and other pleasures in life on Fridays – and therefore consumed tonnes of bacalao.

 

Picture: Insights into the darker sides of the origin of the word 'cod'

The cod fisheries created the foundation for the settlements on the US and Canadian east coast and played a central and not so flattering role in the triangular slave trading.

 

The book describes the history including the cod wars and the basis for the 200 mile fishing zones securing national control of the coastal fisheries, all the way up to the collapse of the species in the North West Atlantic and the Canadian moratorium.

 

As the book cover says: A biography of the fish that changed the world.

 

I highly recommend reading the book, and you are welcome to borrow my copy.

 

/Anne