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A fascinating review of the history of the Atlantic cod fisheries. While I knew of the stories of the Grand banks and Georges banks from my University days (I doubt there is a Marine Biologist in the world who has not studied this classic case of overfishing), I had never thought about the wider social implications of the collapse of this fishery and I certainly had never wondered too much about the sociological role of the animal. It turns out that Gadus morhua, the Atlantic cod was a major player in a whole heap of human history. The Vikings cold dried it and used it to cross the ocean, the Spanish discovered the New world but kept it secret because they did not want to have to share the fishing grounds, in the 1500’s cod was already changing trade routes and ports were gaining prominence based on its affect. All quite fascinating.
The book starts with a modern day (or at least, 1990’s) peek at the state of the fisheries in Newfoundland and then continues on from there. It is well written, easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. While it tells a very polarised aspect of history it is a side that would not often be thought of; how many people have thought about Cod when they were examining the American Slave history?
Interspersed through the text are recipes and historical titbits. As I do not eat fish it is very unlikely I will ever try them but reading them is an added view of the historical time in which they were written and for most of the book I quite enjoyed them. At the end however one encounter about forty pages worth of recipes and I might take those slowly.
Aside from the overdose of Cod recipes at the end I would thoroughly endorse this book, I was delighted to read such an expanded story to the basic overexploitation story of the Grand banks.
The book starts with a modern day (or at least, 1990’s) peek at the state of the fisheries in Newfoundland and then continues on from there. It is well written, easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. While it tells a very polarised aspect of history it is a side that would not often be thought of; how many people have thought about Cod when they were examining the American Slave history?
Interspersed through the text are recipes and historical titbits. As I do not eat fish it is very unlikely I will ever try them but reading them is an added view of the historical time in which they were written and for most of the book I quite enjoyed them. At the end however one encounter about forty pages worth of recipes and I might take those slowly.
Aside from the overdose of Cod recipes at the end I would thoroughly endorse this book, I was delighted to read such an expanded story to the basic overexploitation story of the Grand banks.
