Here’s another incredible picture taken by Commander Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station. When I wrote about two articles on the effects of trawling I looked for a picture that showed exactly what a bottom trawling fishing vessel (such as a shrimp boat) does to the sea floor, and how visible the effects are from space or satellite altitude. This photo hadn’t been taken yet!
The image shows a piece of the coastline of Texas in the United States. In the sea you can see the tracks of a shrimp boat, which has stirred up the bottom of the ocean so much that it’s visible from a great height. As you can imagine, this is an extremely destructive fishing technique.
You can google it if you want more information on bottom trawling fishing techniques, but here’s a diagram of how it works in general.
