An Atlantic cod is suspended in alcohol in a clear, rectangular container. It’s one of a smattering of specimens, all floating on shelves beneath the massive ribs of long-dead whales. This room in the University Museum of Bergen, a natural history museum on Norway’s western coast, is purpose-built to hold marvels from the sea. Cod isn’t as startling or unfamiliar as the fish that dwell in the ultra-dark deep and look alien to our landlubbing eyes. Yet something about many of the fish on these shelves is wondrously strange and…
