A female cod can produce
three to nine
million eggs
in one go!
Codfish may live for more than
20 years
and weigh up to 198 lbs!
Codfish is a...
carnivore!
It eats a variety of fish like herring, haddock, and monkfish.
Being great connoisseurs and navigators of the North Sea, the Vikings fished and consumed codfish
preserving it by drying it in cold air (stockfish)
– one of the oldest techniques for preserving food. This product was also exported to more distant regions like the north of current Germany.
Cod Wars.
It could be fiction, but it is not. It was not an armed conflict but rather a series of confrontations between Iceland and the United Kingdom in the 1940s-1970s for fishing rights.
Do you remember your mother making you eat cod liver oil? In spite of tasting bad, this supplement is high in
omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin A and D,
which do wonders to your health!
Fish and chips
– the British prime fast food meal that is served
in thousands of pubs and restaurants –
is mostly made with codfish.
There is no Christmas in Portugal without codfish, but our gadidae is also consumed in other countries like Norway, where they eat a dish called
lutefisk
(codfish that is processed with caustic soda and then steamed).
The scientific name for codfish – Gadus Morhua – derives from the Ancient Greek
Gados (fish)
and Morue, which is French for cod.
The Portuguese cod fishermen were particularly devoted to the several variations of
Our Lady:
Our Lady of the Afflicted, Our Lady of Navigators, and Our Lady of Nazareth.
For the 60 years that King Philip ruled Portugal most of the Portuguese codfish fleet
was dismantled because they needed the ships to increase
Spain's well-known Invincible Armada,
which was destroyed in an attempt to invade the Kingdom of England.
Nothing is wasted in cod fishing... even the contents in
codfish stomachs,
which are brought to the ships, such as small fish that will be reused as bait on the following fishing day.
It is also important
to fish for squid
when cod fishing, since they are the preferred bait. In the early 20th century, the first fisherman to catch a squid would be awarded a bottle of brandy.
One of the worst injuries suffered by line cod fishermen
were hand injuries
caused by extreme cold and salt water as well as the impossibility of wearing gloves, since they would be soaked during the process.