The Story of Cod
Marina Rees

Heating is upending natural cycles, ecosystems and the life-histories of species. The Story of Cod traces these changes through the life of the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua. As Rees states, the piece is “informed by current research, and the impact of warming waters on this species … some populations are already migrating to deeper, cooler waters in warmer seasons, and models predict spawning grounds will shift poleward as temperatures rise.”

She notes the food-web consequences too: “the favoured plankton preys of juvenile Gadus morhua in its larval stage – the copepods Calanus finmarchicus and C. glacialis – have started to shift their seasonal reproduction due to climate change, which is in turn, impacting the fish’s development.” This scientific frame underpins a film that seeks to reconnect us with a species often reduced to commodity. Rees writes plainly: “The Story of Cod seeks to reconnect with a species often overlooked, or simply seen as food ... So who is Gadus morhua, and what is their story?”

Narrated by Sigurþór Heimisson who lends his voice to embody Gadus morhua, and underscored by the fish’s own recorded sounds, the film resists speaking for the cod. “This is a human attempt to become more-than-human, to learn to identify with them and imagine a shared future together.” By opening this Screening Room with such an attentive portrait, Heat extends Ground’s examination of broken cycles – showing how surface-level practices are entangled with deeper seasonal and oceanographic shifts that together redefine the baseline of our present.