And the contest at hand is still daunting—catching high-priced Atlantic bluefin tuna with ... a beauty in the fish—they move like chromed darts through the waters of Cape Cod Bay.

By 1550, sixty percent of all fish eaten in Europe was cod. Kurlansky surveys history from a cod point of view. The Pilgrims, it turns out, planned to thrive by catching cod in Cape Cod Bay ...