The cod fish has been the state fish of Massachusetts for 200 years. If you look around Massachusetts you will find the decorations using codfish in many places.
In one period of time, this species of fish almost got wiped out. The Vikings fished for the cod in Massachusetts. They used the codfish and dried it to make food. This way the codfish wouldn’t spoil, and the Vikings could go on longer journeys. A group of people named the Basques used the codfish as well for the same purpose except for the fact that the Basques added salt to the Vikings’ recipe. Since the Basques added salt, they could travel to hot places without spoiling the fish. The codfish was plentiful at that time. John Cabot reported that the water was so thick with codfish that they only had to dip baskets in the water to scoop them out. The cod also helped the New England colonies to survive and thrive because they could use it as fertilizer, eat it, and sell it. Cod also had an important role in the triangular trade routes and slave trade. New England exported high quality salted cod to Europe. New England exported low quality salted cod to the Caribbean where the slaves working there were forced to make sugar which was made into molasses. Boston merchants bought the molasses and out of that they made rum. Then, the rum produced in Boston was sold in other parts of America and Africa. In Africa, the rum was traded for enslaved people. The enslaved people were brought to the Caribbean to work. But then, technology in the 1800s and the 1900s affected the cod. People made fishing lines with many many hooks, and created boats that could go faster with bigger nets. Soon there was less cod. This was bad. As the cod grew scarcer, people fished more and more. Soon the cod could not be “scooped out of the water in baskets.” And if the cod dies out, what will happen to the fish that the cod eat and the fish that eat the cod? What will happen to the cod’s food web and the cod’s history?
I made my fish jumping because I didn’t want the cod to wander on the bottom of the sea hiding from nets any more. I wanted people to know that in my picture a border of humans did not surround the trapped cods. This picture represented a world that I wanted all codfish and maybe all fish to be in.
No longer hiding. Finally free.
