When it comes to Atlantic cod, there may not be many people familiar with it, this fish is generally shown in the market as a "headless fish", the fish body is fat, the flesh is tight, the muscles are white as gelatin, and the taste is very attractive. In terms of popularity, the Atlantic cod is not as good as the Mingtai fish (yellow line cod) in China, but in Europe and the Americas, this fish is regarded as a symbol of wealth, and was once pushed to the altar by European and American countries, becoming the "Atlantic Gold Mine" sought after by everyone.
Atlantic cod is huge, with a lifespan of up to 20 to 30 years, common individuals weighing about 5 to 12 kilograms, the largest size up to 2 meters, and weighing about 100 kilograms. According to historical records, in 1838, fishermen caught a giant cod weighing 81.65 kilograms in George Shoal; in 1898, another "record-level" cod came out of the water off the coast of Massachusetts, with a body length of 1.8 meters and a weight of 95.71 kilograms.
In the golden age, large cod that grew larger than adults were everywhere, and fishing boats from various countries could catch more than 20,000 fishing a month a month. Many fishermen have made their fortunes by catching and selling cod, becoming the "new aristocracy of cod" in Europe, and have since embarked on the peak of their lives.
Atlantic Cod: America's "First Pot of Gold"
Atlantic cod is a big meat beauty, almost all over the body is a treasure. What should I do with my cod I caught? Fish can be used to marinate dried cod; seemingly useless fish heads can also be used to boil thick soups; fat maws are suitable for frying, grilling or stewing soups; cod roe is suitable for raw or smoked, and the processed caviar is valuable. The most delicious part is the tongue and cheek meat on both sides of the fish head, which is extremely delicious and can be called the best seafood!
The first people in history to eat "cod cake" were basques living in southwestern Europe. According to historical records, the Basques were long-term monopolists of Atlantic cod, and it was not until 5 years after Columbus discovered the New World that the British discovered the Basque "cod secret". The secret also goes to the medieval whaling industry, when Europeans were obsessed with eating whale meat and in high demand, and the Basques, who were good at navigation and business, "threw themselves into their favor" and led fishing boats to the open seas to hunt whaling.
Surprisingly, the Basques found a huge school of cod in the eastern waters of the American continent, which was extremely rich in resources and densely packed underwater "cod storms". After the discovery of cod "mineral deposits" by mistake, the Basques always returned with a full load every time they went to sea, and kept their mouths shut about the location of the fishing grounds.
The Basques also invented the practice of marinating cod in salt, which not only achieves long-term preservation, but also has a special flavor, which is better than fresh cod. With the exclusive "cake" of cod, Pasteur fishermen made a lot of money, and some tracers also regarded cod as a totem, carved into heraldry or ornaments.
By the 15th century, Atlantic cod had become the mainstream of European society, with a 60% appearance rate in edible fish, and the most common dried cod was regarded as the most ideal seafood at that time. On the other hand, the huge cod market and huge profits have also made European countries flock to this fish, scrambling to send ships to find the location of cod fisheries, and large-scale commercial fishing has begun.
By the end of the 16th century, the size of the cod fishing fleet had increased to 150, and for the next few hundred years, cod in Newfoundland was able to fill almost every year with 200 to 300 fishing boats. At its peak, cod resources actually played the role of the "economic engine of the Atlantic", contributing to the rapid rise of the fishing nations involved.
Why are there so many Atlantic cod?
The frenzied "partition fishing" has lasted for centuries, and the cod resources can still meet the needs of fishermen, and the "firmness" of the resources is impressive.
Fishermen have a word of mouth: Atlantic cod is so abundant that "you can step on the back ridge of the fish and go ashore"! In the 19th century, the production of cod in Newfoundland fisheries alone was as high as 100,000 to 300,000 tons, and the global output was as high as 3 million tons, and the resource reserves were not abundant!
Why are there so many Atlantic cod?
First, Atlantic cod are highly reproducible and lack predators in the ocean.
Atlantic cod is mainly distributed in the colder and deeper seas of the North Atlantic Ocean, the suitable water temperature is 4 to 6 °C, is a typical cold-water fish, so the growth rate is slower. It is precisely because of the low temperature environment, Atlantic cod has few natural enemies, its nutritional level index of 4.4, belongs to the top predators in the ocean, squid, mackerel, woolly scales, squid and so on are on the predation list.
In addition, the Atlantic cod is huge and has a strong reproductive ability. Some fishermen once cut 9.834 million eggs in the belly of a medium-sized female cod, and it is conceivable that the number of eggs in the arms of large cod may be more than 10 million! Even Smith Horsman lamented that even with all human effort, it would not have been possible to make it extinct (this view proved to be wrong, to be described later).
Secondly, the confluence of warm and cold currents in the Atlantic Ocean brings abundant nutrients.
The Newfoundland Fishery, famous for its cod, was once one of the world's four largest fisheries, located on the east coast of Canada, with abundant sunshine and good light conditions, which facilitate the reproduction of phytoplankton (primary productivity). Along the coast, the warm Gulf of Mexico Current in the north and the Labrador Cold Current in the south meet and collide, and the nutrient salts and bait at the bottom of the continental shelf are carried to the upper layers, providing sufficient nutrients for the growth of plankton and fish.
With the blessing of the warm current, the fishery has formed a food chain of plankton → krill → mackerel → cod, where millions of tails gather, large humpback whales, schools of tuna, and countless seabirds also come to forage for food.
Finally, early cod development efforts were limited.
Newfoundland's indigenous fisheries are traditional fisheries, carried out on a family-by-family basis, with small boat operations and dynamic balance of cod resources. As a result, within the hundreds of years since cod fisheries were exposed, the actual stock holdings have not shown a clear downward trend.
It wasn't until after the 1950s that the cod crisis began to show its signs. At that time, fishermen in the Nordic countries began a fishing competition, generally upgraded their fishing equipment, motorized fishing boats with "desperate" stream gillnets, as well as advanced flight telemetry and sonic locators, wild cod nowhere to hide, and population resources were severely damaged: by the 90s, the number of adult fish had dropped to about 1.1% in the 60s!
There are early signs of resource crises
In 1992, the biomass of Atlantic cod fell to a freezing point, at just 1% of the early reserves. The Canadian government realized that the wild population of cod had reached a "tipping point", and if no rescue measures were taken, cod resources could disappear completely. That same year, the Canadian government announced the suspension of cod fishing in Newfoundland fisheries, ending more than 500 years of cod fishing in the region.
To conserve cod resources, the Canadian Fisheries Department has also developed a cod recovery plan: fishermen are selected in traditional fishing villages in Newfoundland to assist the Fisheries Conservation Service in conducting resource surveys. Fishermen sample and detect a certain number of cod, judge the age of the fish through otolith observation, and closely monitor the growth of cod stocks and report to the relevant departments in a timely manner.
Now, 30 years later, cod stocks are still being restored. Looking back, this crisis actually had a foreshadowing, and the first to perceive subtle changes were traditional fishermen.
Before Canada issued the ban, many Newfoundland fishermen strongly called for the relevant departments to implement a standardized and quota fishing system. Unfortunately, these appeals have not attracted the attention of Canadian officials, and diesel engine trawlers still carry out indiscriminate fishing for the best interests.
In the North Sea fishery in the United Kingdom, the same plot has been staged. British fishermen have found that the size of the cod caught is getting smaller and smaller, the age of the fish is also advanced, the phenomenon of miniaturization and young age of the catch is becoming more and more obvious, and the economic value is greatly reduced.
Many fishermen have petitioned the fisheries department to regulate the fishing method of flow gillnets and multi-hook long lines in the form of legislation to reduce the harm to fishery resources (flow gillnets are also called "ghost nets" by fishermen, and the nets will float like ghosts in the sea after they are un anchored, trapping all the creatures along the way, causing serious resource losses).
Similarly, the fishermen's advice did not stir up waves, with the result that nearly 70% of the fish in British waters were illegally fished, and the Cod resources of the North Sea fell into a period of rapid decline.
It took less than 50 years for Atlantic cod to move from its heyday to a full-blown collapse. Before "no fish to catch", the omen signal shown by the cod catch was actually a distress signal. Once the tipping point is exceeded, it will be more difficult for cod resources to recover as before, which still has profound warning significance at present.