Fishing trawlers or sabotage: what's behind most undersea cable damage?

AFP English

Much has been written about suspected sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, but the UN says fishing trawlers, not spies, are causing most of the damage. "Generally, around 80 percent of cable cuts are attributed to fishing and anchoring," explains Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy head of the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union.

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00:00Sound of running water.

00:17Sound of water.

00:21Sound of water.

00:28Sound of traffic.

00:31The fact that currently the interest in those topics have increased,

00:36and the fact that interest in cable resiliency topics have increased,

00:40first of all shows the importance of additional infrastructure

00:44that we are so dependent on now, on everyday economic life,

00:47on everyday social life.

00:50There's a lot of reasons why cables could be cut.

00:53Generally, around 80% of cable cuts are attributed to the fishing and anchoring.

00:57So basically loose anchor being dragged for whatever reason over the ocean or seabed can cut it.

01:05Fishing incidents where either the net or the hooks are really damaging those cables.

01:10These are the most common occurrences.

01:13Sound of wind.

01:18Sound of wind.

01:23Sound of wind.

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