Fishing Trawlers, Not Sabotage, Behind Most Undersea Cable Damage: UN

The Defense Post | February 18, 2025

• The UN says fishing trawlers are causing the most damage to subsea cables by far, rather than spies, following several high-profile incidents of sabotage to subsea communications in the Baltic Sea in recent months.

• About 1.4 million kilometers of fiberoptic cables are laid on the ocean floor, enabling trade, financial transactions, public services, digital health, and education around the world.

• 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.

• According to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), damage to subsea cables is not uncommon, with an average of 150 to 200 outages per year worldwide, or around three incidents a week.

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