Earth from Space - Image Description

Fish farms basins, NE China

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station looked near the sun's reflection point to shoot this high-contrast grid pattern of fish farms on the coast of China's northeast province of Liaoning. The fish-farm basins have been built out from the dark-toned, wooded coast to a distance of nearly 6 km (4 mi)(image top left). Fish farms have been constructed at very many points along the province's coastline, but this group of basins, facing the Yellow Sea, is the largest (Liaoning Province is the sixth in China in terms of aquaculture production) Basins are built on shallow seabeds, mudflats and bays. Islands commonly help anchor the construction of basins--one island is shown here (image center). Outer barriers (image lower right) protect the basins from winter storms. Water flow lines and a ship wake can be seen at the river estuary (image top right).

Most aquaculture products are marketed live in China, with less than 5% processed for local or overseas markets. Shellfish, a traditional marine food source, still dominates the marine species production (77%), with sea fish a distant second (5%) having been promoted only in the 1990s. About 4.3 million people are involved in fresh-water and marine fish production in China (2007 data).

Another high contrast astronaut image of fish farms near the Nile delta can be seen here.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.