Pacific?

You know the ads, the ones where Wendy's brags that while other fast food places don't tell you where their fish is from, Wendy's does: "tender, flaky, hand-cut North Pacific Cod. Just the way nature intended!"

The first time I heard that ad, I thought I'd misheard. A friend of mine says, "That ad nearly made me swerve as I was driving, thinking "north Pacific? WTF?"

Some of my readers may be too young to understand. But once upon a time, O Best Beloved, it was the North Atlantic that gave us cod. Masses and masses of cod, in an apparently endless bounty. So we fished it like hell, first with nets and then with sonar and bottom-dragging trawlers.

And now the North Atlantic cod is virtually gone. In the 1990s US and Canadian fisheries suffered catastrophic losses as the cod declined to less than 95% of their usual biomass. The ecosystem suffered trophic cascades as the cod - an apex predator - vanished. Even with the cessation of fishing, the cod have not come back. There may no longer be a place for them.

So Wendy's cheerful ad, touting their tasty new fish sandwich (just in time for Lent!), is also a bitter reminder of things lost - perhaps forever — and a grim warning for the future.