OddClips, Topic: Weird Science.

Cod losing their livers

It is said that when a man finds he has a liver he has instant cause for unhappiness. But the Norwegian codfish are losing their livers, and there is likely to be unhappiness in the world unless they take some means of finding the organ. The scarcity of cod liver oil, a great tonic for people with weak lungs, is owing not to the fact that fewer codfish are caught, but that the fish have little or no livers any more. This is thought to be caused by lack of sufficient nourishment, as the tiny sea creatures on which the cod feed are disappearing from the Norwegian waters/ The livers of the fish when caught are found to be shrivelled badly, and in some cases totally lacking. Where formerly it took only about 15,000 cod to make a barrel of cod liver oil, it now requires at least 40,000.

Utah: Box Elder News, 14 Jan 1904, p.3
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