| STS-108 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Photographic Highlights |
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| STS108-717-85 |
 STS108-717-85 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record. |
| Shrimp Farms and Mangroves, Gulf of Fonseca: For decades,
astronauts on space missions have documented land use changes around
the world. In this pair of images, astronauts track the development
of shrimp farming along the Honduran coastline of the Gulf of Fonseca
between 1989 and 2001. Mariculture, primarily shrimp farming, has
become a leading agricultural effort in Honduras. The regional
transformation of large tracts of coastal swamps into shrimp farms
blossomed throughout the 1990s. The top image was taken with color
infrared film in 1989. Dense vegetation, like the coastal mangrove
swamps and the forested slopes of Volcán Cosigüina show up as dark
red. The bottom image, taken with color visible film by the crew of
the most recent Space Shuttle mission in December 2001 shows that
hundreds of square kilometers of coastal swamp, primarily in
Honduras, have been converted to shrimp ponds. These appear as the
light-colored, rectilinear land use pattern. The Honduras shrimp
farms were hit hard by flooding after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and a
devastating virus in 1999-2000. It is not known how many of the ponds
in this view are still functional. A vigorous debate continues about
the sustainability of the shrimp farms and the impacts to the
environment and coastal ecosystem due to mangrove clearing and
mariculture waste production. Apart from the shrimp farms, the other prominent feature on these images is the impressive volcano Cosigüina, which erupted explosively in 1859 (the largest recorded eruption in the Western Hemisphere). |
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This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate. Recommended Citation: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." . |
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