Fishing trawlers, not sabotage, behind most undersea cable damage: UN

  • News
  • February 18, 2025

Western officials have accused Russian vessels of sabotaging undersea communications and power cables in several high-profile incidents in the Baltic Sea in recent months.

European leaders and experts suspect acts of “hybrid warfare” against Western countries supporting Ukraine, and are calling for increased maritime security.

“The fact that interest in cable resiliency obviously has increased … shows the importance of (this) infrastructure that we are so dependent on,” Tomas Lamanauskas, the deputy head of the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), told AFP in an interview.

The laying and operation of underwater cables was long the preserve of a consortium of large telecoms operators, but the internet giants have largely taken over in recent years, as they strive to keep up with ballooning flows of data.

Today, submarine cables form the backbone of global communications, carrying approximately 99 percent of the world’s internet traffic, Lamanauskas said, pointing out that even when traffic goes through satellites, it is bounced to land stations and goes through underwater cables “to reach every corner of the Earth”.

About 1.4 million kilometres (nearly 900,000 miles) of fiberoptic cables are laid on the ocean floor, enabling the provision of essential services such as trade, financial transactions, public services, digital health and education around the world.

Frequent outages

Damage to submarine cables is not uncommon.

According to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), there are an average of 150 to 200 outages per year worldwide, or around three incidents a week.

But while suspected nefarious activities have been in the headlines, Lamanauskas stressed that fishing and anchoring is responsible for 80 percent of all recorded damage.

There are also natural hazards, ageing, abrasions and equipment failures, he added.

Given the growing importance of such cables, “every incident and every cut of the cable is much more noticeable”, Lamanauskas said.

And while the undersea cable network is vast, there are actually only around 500 individual cables in the world, meaning that “even when a few of those are cut or … damaged, the impact” is huge, Lamanauskas said.

That was certainly the case when three submarine cables carrying about a quarter of all internet traffic between Asia and Europe were cut last year in the Red Sea, or when a huge volcanic eruption severed the cable linking the Tonga archipelago to the rest of the world, he said.

Lamanauskas also highlighted last year’s “important cable cut on the West African coast, (which) really impacted quite a bit of economies” in the region.

It was after that incident that Nigerian Communications Minister Bosun Tijani approached the UN’s ITU telecoms agency to figure out “what can we do together on that”, he said.

‘Cohabitation rules’

In a bid to increase cable resilience, the UN is pushing for the international community to increase cooperation in this highly sensitive sector.

The ITU and ICPC have set up a group of specialists tasked with developing solutions, who will meet for the first time from February 26 to 27 in Nigeria.

Lamanauskas said there were clearly a number of solutions for improving cable security and resilience.

There was a need for better protection of the cables, he said, but also for faster repairs of damaged cables.

More cables should also be laid in isolated areas, allowing data to be more easily redirected in the event of a cut.

Lamanauskas also insisted on the need for strict “cohabitation rules”, to avoid cable cuts by fishing trawlers or other ships that drop anchors on the seabed.

© 2025 AFP

Related Posts

  • February 25, 2025
  • 67 views
Transgender religious order gets rare approval at India Hindu festival

Prayagraj (India) (AFP) – Transgender activists often shunned by society say they have found rare acceptance at India’s Hindu Kumbh Mela festival by giving blessings to pilgrims attending the world’s largest religious gathering.

  • February 25, 2025
  • 65 views
Stuck in eternal drought, UAE turns to AI to make it rain

Abu Dhabi (AFP) – In the marbled halls of a luxury hotel, leading experts are discussing a new approach to an age-old problem: how to make it rain in the UAE, the wealthy Gulf state that lies in one of the world’s biggest deserts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You Missed

Transgender religious order gets rare approval at India Hindu festival

  • February 25, 2025
  • 67 views
Transgender religious order gets rare approval at India Hindu festival

Stuck in eternal drought, UAE turns to AI to make it rain

  • February 25, 2025
  • 65 views
Stuck in eternal drought, UAE turns to AI to make it rain

Trump's chip tariff threats raise stakes for Taiwan

  • February 25, 2025
  • 67 views
Trump's chip tariff threats raise stakes for Taiwan

Galatasaray accuse Mourinho of 'racist statements' after derby

  • February 25, 2025
  • 81 views
Galatasaray accuse Mourinho of 'racist statements' after derby

Fears of US public health crises grow amid falling vaccination rates

  • February 25, 2025
  • 78 views
Fears of US public health crises grow amid falling vaccination rates

Latin American classics get the streaming treatment

  • February 25, 2025
  • 65 views
Latin American classics get the streaming treatment