Atlantic cod
Gadus morhua
— Where the name comes from
Gadus is the Latin name of the cod, from the Greek gádos; morhua is a medieval latinisation of the fish’s name in the Nordic languages. The Italian merluzzo comes perhaps from the Latin maris lucius, “sea pike”. Dried and salted it becomes baccalà and stockfish: few fish have weighed so heavily on the history and economy of the Atlantic.
— Facts
- Group
- Fish · Actinopterygii · Chondrichthyes
- Order
- Cods
- Habitat
- Continental shelf bottoms, between 150 and 200 m
- Range
- The North Atlantic, from North America to Europe
- Size
- 60–120 cm, up to 2 m
- Diet
- Carnivore — fish, crustaceans, molluscs
- Lifespan
- 15–25 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It has a barbel under the chin, a sense organ for finding food on the bottom.
- 02
A large female can release millions of eggs in a single spawning.
- 03
It forms huge migrating shoals, once so dense they were said to “stop the boats”.
— What sets it apart
Cod fed Europe for a thousand years and ended by writing history: dried, it fuelled the Vikings on their Atlantic crossings and the medieval fleets; its banks off North America drew European fishermen there perhaps before Columbus. Then, in 1992, the Newfoundland stocks — once legendary for abundance — collapsed from overfishing, and the fishery was closed overnight, putting tens of thousands out of work. More than thirty years on, they have never truly recovered.
