As entertainingly documented in Mark Kurlansky’s best selling book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, the waters off the east coast of the North American continent have long supported important fisheries. The Basques routinely fished these waters before Columbus sailed to the new world. The economic and social importance of the fish catch influenced European politics and diplomacy well before the American Revolution. Along the coast between Cape Hatteras and Newfoundland, Georges Bank is among the most productive regions for cod and other fish species.

Wiebe, P., R. Beardsley, D. Mountain, and A. Bucklin. 2002. U.S. GLOBEC Northwest Atlantic/Georges Bank Program. Oceanography 15(2):13–29, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2002.18.

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