Torsk

 

Torsk

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) 

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Torsk is the Scandinavian name for cod, but specifically Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) which is also known commercially as codling.

All true torsk are cod but not all cod are torsk. Some in the cod (Gadidae) family are sometimes marketed as cod, but are more properly known as haddock, pollock, coley, whiting, hake, among others.

In Ireland and the UK, cusk (Brosme brosme) is called torsk, even though it is not.

Atlantic cod can live for twenty-five years, and are sexually mature at ages varying from two to eight years. It has been heavily overfished, to the point of being labelled vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Some stocks are more endangered than others, for example, in the western Atlantic around Canada and New England.

 Eastern Atlantic cod stocks, around Iceland, Norway, and the Barents Sea (north of Norway and Russia and strictly part of the Arctic Ocean) are at healthy, sustainable levels.

North Sea and Celtic Sea cod stocks are still endangered. The situation in the North Sea is so dire that scientists have advised that there should be no cod fishing in these waters. In addition, other stocks of the Gadidae family are also causing concern. Similar restricted fishing measures are expected to be suggested in the Celtic Sea.

Fish, once a cheap and easily sourced food, has become increasingly expensive. Suggested alternatives for cheaper meals are chicken, beans, pulses, eggs, mushrooms, and tofu.

Chicken and eggs are produced at speed on an industrial scale, but that’s a topic for another time.

April A-Z blogging challenge 2012 G is for Glory

G brings us to the seventh of 26 short stories – 250 words or fewer - about Alice’s life and times.

G is for Glory

The first months of the war were surprisingly quiet and became known as the Phoney War. People relaxed and stopped carrying their gas masks everywhere. In the spring of 1940 they were made to think again when the Netherlands and Belgium were invaded and the battle for France began. Suddenly the enemy seemed uncomfortably close.

Letters home calmed the anxieties of Alice’s family but they had little idea where the brothers were. They dreaded seeing the telegram boy and sighed with relief when he passed by. One day in 1941 he stopped at the house. Edward was missing in action, presumed killed. He was just eighteen. His parents wept and Ruth and Alice did their best to comfort them though they could hardly stop their own tears from falling.

Three years later another telegram arrived reporting Charles’ death. His ship had been torpedoed in the Atlantic in early January. 

When VE day came in 1945 there were ecstatic celebrations for those who welcomed home their loved ones. There was proud reference to the sacrifices of ‘our glorious dead’ but the bereaved could not see it and could not rejoice.

Finally, Daniel returned. He’d left his legs behind on a battlefield but at least he had survived. Alice watched Ruth as she got ready to visit him in hospital.  She was trembling. Alice recognised her fear and hoped somehow Daniel would be the same as he had ever been.

She was thirteen - half her life had been lived in wartime.

ABC Wednesday - J is for Jutland

The Battle of Jutland (known in German as Skagerrakschlacht) took place on 31^st May 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark between the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. The Royal Navy’s objective was to defend the North Sea and to prevent the Imperial Naval Fleet from infiltrating the Atlantic and attempting to immobilise Britain’s merchant shipping.

Grand Fleet, Jutland

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It was the largest naval battle of WWI and though the Royal Navy lost more men and ships (14 ships and around 6,000 lives) than the Germans (11 ships and about 2,500 casualties) the conclusion was that the Imperial German Fleet was defeated. The fleet was unable and in any case would have been unwilling to engage in fleet to fleet fighting for the duration of the war and relied increasingly on submarine warfare but the Royal Navy remained a potent fighting force.

At the beginning of the war the Royal Navy had more ships than their opponents. Realising that they were unlikely to gain victory in full fleet battle, the Germans decided on a strategy of ensnaring smaller groups in order to defeat them.

A series of incorrect messages and poor communication between ships led to more British losses than might have been forecast. For example, much of the most critical signalling was carried out with flags and lamps rather than by wireless. They were strange methods to rely on in misty conditions and with smoke issuing from the stacks of the coal-fired warships.

The battle was the first one in which an aircraft carrier was used. The single British 

craft carried a seaplane.

Four Victoria Crosses were awarded - only one recipient survived the battle.

Joyful Denise Nesbitt and her Jolly crew organise this weekly meme. Click here to see more Js.