Cod are a very valuable source of food, as they are a source for cod-liver oil. In the past cod have also formed a profitable fishery in the North Atlantic, to which England, France and Portugal all began to send boats yearly in the 16th century. Such fishing nowadays is still a very important part of the economy in countries such as Iceland and Great Britain. The decline of fish stocks has made the remaining sources vital enough to cause aggressive confrontation, for instance the Cod War in 1973 where Royal Navy frigates clashed with Icelandic gunboats in what for Iceland was a war of national survival.
Right now cod is to be added to the list of endangered species by WWF, which fears that Britain's traditional dish of fish and chips is to disappear along with thousands of fishing industry jobs. WWF says the species is threatened with virtual extinction by overfishing. …
