Cod
.Ballad O' Bones
Poem and Digital Photograph (2025)
Down Spurn an’ up t’Olderness bend,
Where t’North Sea’s mood can twist or mend,
Lives she who skegs at fish wi’ care,
Reads cod like tea leaves wi’ bones laid bare.
–
Nell’s no witch, nor wears a hood,
Jus’a top from Boyes, an’ boots caked good.
Request to learn of what comes hence
And hear her bones speak consequence.
–
Tossin’ ’em down, a Seer stirred,
Each rib a sign, each spine a word.
No charts, no news, no need to sleuth,
Insight found in brittle truth.
–
The air gets thick, the bones run white,
They whisper low by lantern light.
No preacher’s book, no doctor’s creed,
Just cod an’ fate an’ bloody need.
–
“That curve there? Storm. That crack? Divorce.
Those there? A bain born breach, of course.”
She don’t do chance, she don’t do guess.
The bones, they talk. She does t’rest.
–
“Come ‘ere,” she says, “see how that falls?
Luck comes close – yer fortune calls.
But this one’s angled – you been sick?
There’s illness brewin’, fast an’ thick.”
–
Some reckon she’s mad, but think on deep…
When cod bones speak Hull folk won’t sleep.
You laughed, at first. They laughed as well.
Just once ter neglect this warning bell.
–
One deckie came, they called him Jack,
She read the bones, stood solemn back.
“Avoid water, lad, ‘til Tuesday night,
Steel’ll buckle, the flood’ll bite.”
–
Chucklin’, he sailed, til trawler capsized.
Could’ve lived, like she advised.
Now even lads who’d scoff an’ jeer,
Keep cod bones close, an’ her more near.
–
They tell the story, the cod and ‘er,
Together with bones, prophecy stirs,
Cod ain’t caught to fry or shift,
It tell the truth, through bone and gift.
–
Hull folk know we’re one wit’ sea.
But codbones carry what will be…
An’ when Nell’s gone, who’ll read the text?
Who’ll know what bones say will come next?
Artist: Lauren Saunders
Fish Profile:
Atlantic Cod - Gadus morhua
Conservation status
Cod are all wild-caught. They have a chequered conservation record with half of the fishing grounds falling into the Avoid category of the MCS. Cod are commonly fished using bottom trawl. They are classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2013).
According to the MCS, most Cod sold in the UK is from Iceland or the Arctic, which is generally OK but Needs Improvement.
Cod are listed on the Greenpeace Red List with the exception off the North East Arctic which is ‘relatively healthy’. Most stocks in the North Atlantic are in ‘poor condition’.
They say:
‘Atlantic Cod stocks have suffered heavily from overfishing on both sides of the Atlantic. In the major fishing areas for cod in US and Canadian waters of the Northwest Atlantic, stocks have and continue to be overfished. A further concern is that cod are often caught using bottom trawling gear which damages seabed habitats that are important for the survival of many other species and catches and kills unwanted species.’