I’m currently reading a book called “Cod” (https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/products/cod-p-a-biography-of-the-fish-that-changed-the-world). It takes a look at the last 3/400 years of history in relation to commercial activity around the cod fish. It makes a compelling case that the cod-fishing industry was a driver in, for instance, both slavery and the American revolution … and that maybe the Basque where in the new world before Columbus. The fact that the Pilgrams nearly starved close to Cape Cod in 1620/21, with one of the richest fisheries on the planet right next door seems to be due to an impressive combination of ignorance and incompetence.

My father was stationed with the army in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1959. We took a tent camper-trip up there in ‘68 (and I went back in ~81). I have pictures he took on my living room wall of masted fishing boats, the docks of a small fishing village, and small fising dories in St. John Harbor. My memory was that the fishing had collapsed between ‘59 and ‘68, but apperently Canada allowed cod fishing up to the 90s. I remember that we bought a salt cod, let it soak overnight, cooked it, and it was STILL almost all salt.

The book is a good read.