Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Atlantic northwest cod fishery collapsed by 1992. On the 2nd of July 1992, Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans John Crosbie declared a moratorium after data showed the total cod biomass had fallen to less than 1% of its normal value. The two-year moratorium was later extended indefinitely.
Approximately 19,000 fishermen and cod processing plant workers in Newfoundland lost their employment. Nearly 40,000 workers and harvesters across Newfoundland and Labrador applied for federal relief through the Atlantic Groundfish Strategy, known as TAGS.
Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) is larger, reaching up to 200 cm and 96 kg, and lives in the colder, deeper waters of the North Atlantic. Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) is smaller, reaching up to 119 cm and 22.7 kg, and is found in both eastern and western regions of the northern Pacific.
Cod has been an important economic commodity in international markets since the Viking period, around 800 AD. The dried cod market that developed in southern Europe has lasted for more than 1,000 years, surviving the Black Death, wars, and other crises.
The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts is a wooden carving of a codfish that hangs in the state's House of Representatives chamber. It reflects the importance of cod to the history and development of Massachusetts, which grew in part due to cod fishing grounds near its coast.
The cod worm, Lernaeocera branchialis, is a parasite that begins life as a free-swimming larva, attaches first to a flatfish or lumpsucker, then migrates to a cod host. The adult worm penetrates into the cod until it reaches the heart, where it branches into the main artery and extracts nutrients from the fish's blood.