Re: Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () cs columbia edu>]

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:20:07 -0000
"Rod Beck" <Rod.Beck () hiberniaatlantic com> wrote:

> Cables are mostly damaged by fishing in coastal areas (continental
> shelf) or by deep undersea currents that erode the polyurethane
> jacket that protects them. So it is crucial that the cable be buried
> at least one meter and preferably two meters in coastal waters. The
> big fishing boats scrape sea floor -  the ecological equivalent of
> surface or 'strip' mining. These boats scrap the ocean floor and can
> hit the cables or even sever them.  
In some areas, shark bites are a threat, too -- see
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel1/48/1267/00029600.pdf
(subscription required for the full text), or
http://www.tscm.com/phone/oceanic_cable.html


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb