Image: Samantha Cristoforetti's shot of fishing boats at night

This abstract picture taken from the International Space Station shows fishing boats illuminating the sea to attract fish into their nets. In this case, the lights attracted ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to take this image while circling Earth 400 km above the sea. She commented: "Fishing boats… what intriguing visual effects as the light shines through a cloud layer!"

Many fish and squid are attracted to light, so fishermen shine bright lights to lure them into their nets. The lights also help the fishermen to haul their catch onboard and process the fish.

Clouds hanging over the area have blurred the lights; the black lines are areas without cloud cover.

Samantha is spending over five months on the Space Station as part of her Futura mission to run scientific experiments and maintain the weightless research laboratory. Follow her adventures first hand via samanthacristoforetti.esa.int