On Friday I gave you this interesting cranium to identify:
Everyone recognised it as belonging to a fish, but the species was a bit more difficult to identify. Nonetheless jackashby, hestridgesj, Ric Morris and Cody all correctly converged on it being from an Atlantic Cod Gadus morhua Linnaeus, 1758.
These large fish have provided an important source of protein for the British working classes since the second half of the 19th Century and it is perhaps unsurprising that for most people the Cod is usually thought of as a crispy golden-brown creature with no head or tail, swimming in a salty sea of chips and vinegar.
Due to the abundance of Cod and the ability to catch them by trawling in local waters they were one of the few foods not rationed during World War II, along with the trusty potato, which was handy for the British populace. Not so handy for the Cod though.
The popularity of Cod as a food source has led to a considerable amount of overfishing over the years. Atlantic Cod are now classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Redlist, with stocks fluctuating considerably in relation to trawling activity. Time to switch to alternative fish for the table perhaps?