Atlantic Cod (*Gadus morhua*) is a bottom-dwelling fish that lived in abundant numbers in shallow waters on the continental shelf such as the [[Grand Banks]] off [[Newfoundland]] and [[Georges Bank]] off [[Cape Cod]]. Europeans have fished Cod in the Atlantic since at least 800 CE, and may have been part of the motivation for [Norse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsemen) explorers to settle in [[Vinland]] around 1000. The cod fisheries on the Grand Banks were so valuable that they were mentioned in several treaties including Utrecht (War of Spanish Succession, 1713), Paris ([[French and Indian War|Seven Years' War]], 1763), and Versailles ([[American Revolution]], 1783). In the 1990s, the cod on the Grand Banks were fished nearly to extinction and international bans were imposed. While the cod population has begun recovering, it is still considered in the "critical zone". Journalist Mark Kurlansky wrote *Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World* in the 1990s. He has also written a book about the Basque people, who were intimately connected with cod in their maritime history. Cod is [dried onshore](https://www.grida.no/resources/1878), so anyone who fished on the Grand Banks almost certainly landed in North America.