doi:10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.033


Current Biology Vol 16 No 17
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Feature

Cod all mighty
A new book explores the importance of marine resources and, in 
particular, cod for the history of Catholic Europe and the conventional 
views on the European settling of North America. Nigel Williams reports.
The importance of fish in the history 
of Europe, particularly in Catholic 
countries, and the European 
colonisation of North America, 
have been underplayed, according 
to a new book by University of 
California anthropologist, Brian 
Fagan. Most Americans have been 
traditionally schooled to believe 
that the European discovery and 
settlement of the New World arose 
from two events: the first voyage 
of Christopher Columbus in 1492, 
and the landing of the pilgrims in 
Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. 
Fagan’s book tells a dramatically 
different story, one centred on 
the immense fish resources of 
the North Atlantic and North Sea, 
and upon the Catholic Christian 
prohibition of eating meat during 
Lent and on fast days.

Virtually ignored in most history 
books are centuries of exploitation 
of these resources by often 
unrecorded fishermen who travelled 
across some of the world’s most 
dangerous seas to catch cod, 
herring, hake and other fish for 
the European market and, in the 
process, find previously unknown 
shores.

As European populations 
expanded during the Middle Ages, 
the demand for fish to be eaten on 
fast days increased accordingly. 
Initially, this could be met by coastal 
fishing and by subsistence fishing 
in streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. 
The monastic establishments 
throughout Europe resorted to 
artificial fish ponds in which species 
such as carp could be raised, but 
this was never very productive and 
the demand for sea fish steadily 
grew. “By the tenth and eleventh 
centuries, fish had become not 
a catch but a commodity. The 
stage was set for the extraordinary 
journey to North America,” writes 
Fagan.

The problem with fish from the 
sea was that they readily spoiled 
and could not be transported very 
far before they became inedible. 
This was particularly true of herring, 
an oily fish abundant in the shallow 
seas of northern Europe. The 
solution was to preserve them 
once the catch reached the coast, 
either by salting and/or drying or 
Fishy tales: ‘Fish market’ by Joachim Beucklaer, 1568. (Picture: Bridgeman Art Library.)



Magazine
R659

Q & A

Trudy Mackay

Trudy F. C. Mackay is William Neal 
Reynolds Distinguished Professor 
of Genetics at North Carolina 
State University. After growing up 
in Canada, where she completed 
her undergraduate and Master’s 
degrees at Dalhousie University, 
she did her doctoral work with 
Alan Robertson at the University 
of Edinburgh. She remained there 
as a lecturer until 1988, when 
she joined the faculty at North 
Carolina State University. Her 
work focuses on the genetics 
of mutation and variation in 
Drosophila melanogaster 
and the analysis of complex 
morphological, physiological and 
behavioral traits. She co-authored 
the fourth edition of Introduction 
to Quantitative Genetics with 
Douglas Falconer. She has 
served on numerous editorial 
and advisory boards, and in 2004 
received the Genetics Society of 
America Medal. She is a Fellow 
of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences and of the UK’s 
Royal Society.

How did you decide to become 
a quantitative geneticist? When 
I was at high school I discovered 
that I had a knack for mathematics 
and at the same time I developed 
a strong interest in understanding 
the basis of life and the evolution 
of biological form and function. 
Genetics appealed to me, because 
the mathematical and statistical 
analyses used to analyze complex 
traits were all logical and seemed 
to make things fall neatly in place. 
Genetics felt to me then, as it still 
does, to be the most exact and 
rigorous discipline in experimental 
biology. I was formally introduced 
to evolutionary and quantitative 
genetics in my undergraduate 
sophomore year by Roger Doyle 
at Dalhousie University, under 
whose mentorship I completed 
my Master’s dissertation on 
the quantitative genetics of the 
settling behavior of Spirorbis 
borealis, a marine polychaete. 

This work had several 
consequences. First, I learned 

the basics of quantitative genetic 
analysis by using Douglas 
Falconer’s 1960 version of 
Introduction to Quantitative 
Genetics and Robert Sokal and 
James Rohlf’s 1969 version of 
Biometry as ‘how to’ instruction 
manuals. Second, I developed 
a lasting fascination with animal 
behavior. And third, I realized 
that I needed to work with a 
better genetic model system and 
abandoned Spirorbis in favor of 
Drosophila. Thus, I was  
delighted to be able to continue 
my graduate studies at the 
University of Edinburgh, then  
and now a powerhouse for 
quantitative genetic studies. My 
mentor was Alan Robertson, one  
of the fathers of current day 
quantitative genetics, but I learned 
much from Douglas Falconer and 
William (Bill) Hill. 

What do you consider the single 
most important development 
in quantitative genetics since 
you were introduced into the 
field? In global terms, the most 
important transformation the field 
has undergone is the transition 
from ‘complex statistics’ to 
‘complex genetics’; in the words 
of Alan Robertson, we have 
begun to “lift the statistical fog” 
clouding our understanding of 
the genetic basis of quantitative 
variation. That is not to say that 
statistical analyses are no longer 
critical; of course, they are. But 
we have moved beyond simply 
understanding complex traits 
in terms of probabilities and 
numbers arising from complicated 
equations to being able to actually 
understand genetic mechanisms 
in the context of the biology of the 
organism. I refer, of course, to the 
ability to identify genes underlying 
complex traits by linkage to 
marker loci exhibiting Mendelian 
inheritance patterns (albeit it with 
some difficulty).

It may surprise people not 
familiar with the history of the 
field that quantitative trait locus 
(QTL) and linkage disequilibrium 
mapping did not spring into 
existence in the late 1980s/early 
1990s with no precedence. As 
early as 1923, Sax recognized 
that one could map genes 
associated with a quantitative 
smoking, or by a combination of the 
three, and to pack them into barrels 
for transport. The cod and its 
relatives hake and haddock, were 
a different matter and more easily 
preserved than herring. The pursuit 
of cod took fishermen much further 
away. A huge industry developed, 
centred on Bergen, where ships 
exchanged dried fish for grain. 
Archaeological excavations in the 
Norwegian Lofoten Islands have 
pinpointed the moment around the 
eleventh century when cod became 
a lucrative trading commodity 
that supplanted herring in many 
European meals.

The greatest riches in this 
commerce came to those 
whose ships managed to reach 
Newfoundland, writes Fagan. This 
huge island was discovered and 
temporarily settled by the Norse in 
about AD 1000 and rediscovered by 
John Cabot in 1497. Fagan admits 
that there is some speculation 
about the extent of early European 
fishing expeditions to North 
America ahead of the arrival of 
Cabot but “why would hard-nosed 
merchants keep sending their ships 
west if there was no profit in it? 
Cabot shipped out with at least 
two merchants on board, who may 
have known sailing directions to the 
Newfoundland fishing grounds.”

It soon became clear that the 
world’s most productive fishery 
was the Grand Banks, teeming 
with cod. It was not long before 
other English, Basque and French 
fishermen were on site, and soon 
other similar banks were discovered 
further south off the coast of what 
became ‘New England’.  As Fagan 
writes: “over the next four and a 
half centuries, the brutally tough 
Newfoundland cod fisheries would 
generate more wealth in Europe 
than all the gold of the Indies.”

He concludes that the Mayflower 
pilgrims with few practical skills 
were for decades no more 
significant than the many English 
fishermen and fur traders.

“It was not the sudden inspiration 
of famous names that brought 
Europeans to North America — not 
Columbus or Cabot or the settlers at 
Plymouth Rock — but the thousand-
year journey in the pursuit of fish.”

Fish on Friday by Brian Fagan.  
Basic Books. ISBN: 0-465-02284-7