The founding fish of Massachusetts the cod has been a staple of the diet of New Englanders and Europeans for hundreds of years. These fish are a long, deep bodied, blunt finned streamlined fish, colored copper to green and found often up to 50lbs out on deep ledges and banks. Caught bottom fishing from 20-400ft with bait or jigs, the cod is a very good eating fish with firm flaky white flesh. An excellent book, COD, was written by Mark Kurlansky that details the world's long history with the cod.