food Cod

lean fish, which lives and breeds in cold lands, cod was a staple food of the Nordic peoples, particularly the Vikings.

At the time of expansion of these Scandinavian conquerors in Europe that lasted the ages 9 to 11, the cod was introduced to other peoples of the continent.

Basques and Bretons, great navigators like the Vikings, adopted cod in their food. As this fish a salty turn, it can be preserved for a long time, it was very useful for feeding the crew on long runs to the sea.

In the Middle Ages, the cod trade has become quite lucrative, as the dried and salted fish was adopted as a major source of protein during the time of Lent, a time when Christians abstained from eating land animal meats.

In the 15th century, other people browsers adopted cod. the Portuguese were that, despite not having been the first to appreciate the fish, have become its major customers and distributors. They sought cod in dangerous and icy waters of Newfoundland, Canada, and took the fish to their new colonies.

That's how the cod arrived in Brazil with the first settlers coming from Portugal. With the coming of the Portuguese court to Brazil, began the official exports of fish, which became an almost Brazilian tradition.

Besides much appreciated, cod was, until World War II, a cheap fish and considered popular food. After that, first because of food shortages in Europe and, more recently, the decline in cod caused by industrial fishing has become an expensive dish. With the exception of codfish balls, still one of the most popular of the "bar food", cod is reserved for special meals because of its high price.


How do you live cod

Habitat

The cod lives in the cold waters. Live near the seabed - is, therefore, a demersal species.

The populations of Atlantic cod are distributed by various habitats of the ocean. Juveniles are along the coast, between 10 and 30 meters deep. Adults prefer deeper and cooler waters, between 100 and 200 meters. During the day, they swim in schools to better protect themselves from predators.

Between winter and spring, the codfish reproduce. The fertility of the Atlantic cod is almost mythical: A good sized female can produce nine million eggs. Swimmer very active, cod migrates to spawn, choosing warmer spawning beds. Some cod stocks make great travel either to spawn either to seek food.

Food chain

The Atlantic cod is a voracious predator. It feeds of marine life that abounds in the areas where they cross the warm and cold currents of the ocean, as the great banks of Newfoundland.

Codfish grow quickly because they have a diverse and abundant diet. The young feed on small animal organisms that make up the zooplankton and small larvae, bivalves and crustaceans s. Adults prefer fish: eat herring, hake, anglerfish or codfish young and unwary.

Small or large, the Atlantic cod has its enemies: seals, whales, sharks, dolphins, octopuses, swordfish and some seabirds have cod as food.

Some species of seals are large predatory cod. The balance of the food chain that cod is part depends on this and other phenomena - natural and artificial factors.

Sustainable species

The Atlantic cod is one of the richest species of the ocean. Over the centuries, its fishing led to great human sagas, business and conflicts. For a long time it was believed that cod as other fish of great importance for human consumption, was an infinite resource. However much they fished, the kind of playability guarantee its abundance and would be able to restore the balance between biological resources and fishing.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the intensive application almost foolproof detection and capture techniques produced the first fishing sustainability issues. The fish was less and cod were captured on average smaller than in other times. In certain sea areas, fishing for cod in the Atlantic grew faster than the natural rate of replenishment of stocks. By spontaneous reaction, the most endangered cod stocks have begun to breed earlier.

In addition to over-fishing, nature itself has posed challenges to the way we manage this and other common biological heritage: on the one hand, the excessive growth of the seal population in many coastal areas of the North Atlantic resulted in a major drop of cod stocks; secondly, climate change due to its integrated and global nature, have caused changes in species behavior patterns.

Because it is a vicious circle, the fishing income decline pioneered the preventive measures of scarcity. Limiting the size of the mesh network is the first way to prevent the immature cod had time to grow and reproduce. Restrict the right of access to resources was the next move, long and controversial.

The Marine Sciences helped states and international organizations to regulate fisheries to ensure she had future. Today, the scenarios sustainability of Atlantic cod are much more optimistic than a few years ago.