For centuries, cod was like gold, driving men to extremes. Wars were waged over it. Settlers sailed across oceans in search of it. And early America used it to finance a revolution. Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish. Cod played such an important role in the early history of New England that a carved replica of the fish, distinguished by the curved filament jutting from its mouth, has hung for centuries in the Massachusetts State House. It is called the Sacred Cod.

http://www.sacredcodfilm.com/