Looking
northwards from our apartment at night we can see a line of green lights in a
line out to sea along the horizon.
The map below
shows the approximate area that we see the lights. Our apartment is located on
the red mark at the base of the map. The Thai border is not that far away along
the coast (Red arrow). The larger island, Langkawi is Malaysian but it is surrounded by Thai Islands.
On the night of Tuesday 21st January there were many boats on the horizon but there was one very close of Pulau Tikus. This is a small local boat...not the larger Thai variety.
We had our first
taste of these while in Langkawi a few years ago. Langkawi is very close to
Thailand. Such lights have even baffled Astronaut Reid Wiseman (perhaps not so
wise) after he took a picture from the International Space Station in 2014. The bright white light cluster is Bangkok.
The space
station was 200 miles above earth but the green dots were multiple and highly visible
in the Gulf of Thailand. The offshore illumination comes from enormous arrays
of bright green LED lights used to attract squid and other sea life to the
surface. Fishermen from South America and Southeastern Asia light up the ocean
with powerful lamps that attract plankton and that fish species that squid feed
on.
Squid boats can carry more than a hundred of these lamps generating 3000 kilowatts of light.
The squid follow
their prey towards the surface where they are easier to catch by fishermen
with nets or jigging lines.
The product will be in the market the next day ................
and on the table soon after.
The squid catch can be dried in the sun
........and processed squid comes in a number of different forms
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