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