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The cod
216 environmental pollution, this book can be a source and guide. Sixteen authors have contributed 15 articles, each with a bibliography covering a wide field of the practical and theoretical aspects of the pollution of the biosphere of our planet by man, and its possible influences on life, communities and human health. In accordance with their experience and ideas, the authors of the different chapters present articles concerning the actual situation, the consequences and the future outlooks of the pollution of the atmosphere, the oceans and the soils of our planet. The possible sources of pollution are discussed and their influences on the physical, chemical and biological composition of the biosphere are evaluated. Considering as a basis, the fundamental principles of the stable ecosystems on land and in the aqueous environment, the destruction of the ecological balance in many parts of the world by human interference is described. The effects of the deterioration caused by man of the environment on human health itself are discussed in terms of overpopulation, malnutrition and the noxious substances contaminating in the basic elements of air, water and soil. Finally, it is stated that there is a need to establish international programmes, like the International Program of Man and Biosphere, which are responsible for determing how man can utilize the biosphere without producing disastrous consequences ultimately. The rather high price of the book is certainly justified by the high standard of the contributions. P. HAGEL (IJmuiden, The Netherlands)
The Cod.
A.C. Jensen. Crowell, New York, N.Y., 1972, 182 pp., US
$7.95. The sub-title on the jacket almost exactly describes the contents of this book: the uncommon history of a common fish and its impact on American life from Viking times to the present. Nearly, because we are also told of the important part the cod has played in the economic and social history of a number of European countries. With a wide knowledge of his subject and much devotion to it Jensen offers an illuminating and searching history of the fish that ‘for centuries has been a symbol of the wealth of the sea’, now and then giving due weight to all the more picturesque aspects of the cod’s story. At times Jensen’s book has an immediacy and an insight into the daily life aboard
317 fishing vessels regardless of what century, which is possessed by the man who knows the taste of the sea and is denied to the land-locked historian. The book on the whole has been written in a plain narrative style. It offers pleasant and interesting reading, except in the initial chapters, wherein chronological, historical, biological and statistical data are somewhat disturbingly presented together, Jensen, in the initial chapters of his book, begins with a sketch of the natural history of the cod and its role in legend and custom. In the chapter ‘The beef of the sea’ he explains why the cod, during the centuries, was continuously searched for: the fish is high in protein, low in fat, about 85-95% digestible, and has excellent keeping qualities when air-dried or dried and salted. Furthermore, already in the 16th century fishermen began to save the cod livers to extract cod-liver oil, that was in great demand by tanners, and used in oil-lamps and, in the beginning of the 18th century, for medicinal purposes. In the next chapters we are told of the various developments in the history of the cod fishery. The Norsemen already fished for cod in open boats on the offshore banks and the shoals of the North Atlantic and perhaps even before the North American coast. Near the end of the 15th century the Portuguese and French cod fishery near Newfoundland had already been a long time in full swing. Towards the end of the 16th century the English fishermen began to dominate the New World’s cod fishery. The cod played an important role in the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’, a three-cornered trade: salted cod to Spain and Portugal, thence to West-Africa for slaves; with that cargo to the West-Indies where the slaves were sold and sugar, molasses and salt for the homeland were bought. In a separate chapter Jensen tells us of the 19th-century dorymen, who, alone, fished for cod in their frail 12-foot dories, using a new fishing method: the line trawl with several hundred baited hooks. In the closing chapters we are told of the introduction of the steam-powered fishing vessels and the otter trawl, both of which fostered more productive fishing, and the dangers that today are threatening the cod fishery: heavy fishing, which does not allow the fish to grow big and heavy, and pollution of the ocean. The book has a selected biblio~aphy and an index, and there are some fine illustrations in it. L.M. AKVELD
(Rotter&m,
The ~ether~und~~
The Cod.
A.C. Jensen. Crowell, New York, N.Y., 1972, 182 pp., US
$7.95. The sub-title on the jacket almost exactly describes the contents of this book: the uncommon history of a common fish and its impact on American life from Viking times to the present. Nearly, because we are also told of the important part the cod has played in the economic and social history of a number of European countries. With a wide knowledge of his subject and much devotion to it Jensen offers an illuminating and searching history of the fish that ‘for centuries has been a symbol of the wealth of the sea’, now and then giving due weight to all the more picturesque aspects of the cod’s story. At times Jensen’s book has an immediacy and an insight into the daily life aboard
317 fishing vessels regardless of what century, which is possessed by the man who knows the taste of the sea and is denied to the land-locked historian. The book on the whole has been written in a plain narrative style. It offers pleasant and interesting reading, except in the initial chapters, wherein chronological, historical, biological and statistical data are somewhat disturbingly presented together, Jensen, in the initial chapters of his book, begins with a sketch of the natural history of the cod and its role in legend and custom. In the chapter ‘The beef of the sea’ he explains why the cod, during the centuries, was continuously searched for: the fish is high in protein, low in fat, about 85-95% digestible, and has excellent keeping qualities when air-dried or dried and salted. Furthermore, already in the 16th century fishermen began to save the cod livers to extract cod-liver oil, that was in great demand by tanners, and used in oil-lamps and, in the beginning of the 18th century, for medicinal purposes. In the next chapters we are told of the various developments in the history of the cod fishery. The Norsemen already fished for cod in open boats on the offshore banks and the shoals of the North Atlantic and perhaps even before the North American coast. Near the end of the 15th century the Portuguese and French cod fishery near Newfoundland had already been a long time in full swing. Towards the end of the 16th century the English fishermen began to dominate the New World’s cod fishery. The cod played an important role in the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’, a three-cornered trade: salted cod to Spain and Portugal, thence to West-Africa for slaves; with that cargo to the West-Indies where the slaves were sold and sugar, molasses and salt for the homeland were bought. In a separate chapter Jensen tells us of the 19th-century dorymen, who, alone, fished for cod in their frail 12-foot dories, using a new fishing method: the line trawl with several hundred baited hooks. In the closing chapters we are told of the introduction of the steam-powered fishing vessels and the otter trawl, both of which fostered more productive fishing, and the dangers that today are threatening the cod fishery: heavy fishing, which does not allow the fish to grow big and heavy, and pollution of the ocean. The book has a selected biblio~aphy and an index, and there are some fine illustrations in it. L.M. AKVELD
(Rotter&m,
The ~ether~und~~