I was formerly employed by WCI Cable in Forest Grove, OR. which had the landing station for cable to Alaska, Australia, Japan, etc. It was not Alaska Northstar then, but Alaska FiberStar. -Dee ----- Original Message ----- From: Fred Heutte [mailto:aoxomoxoa@sunlightdata.com] To: joelja@uoregon.edu Cc: nanog-post@rsuc.gweep.net, nanog@merit.edu Sent: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:28:36 -0900 Subject: Re: Undersea fiber cut after Taiwan earthquake - PCCW / Singtel / KT e tc connectivity disrupted
There are significant cable landing sites at Pacific City and at Nedonna Beach near Rockaway, Oregon, not far from here in Portland. They connect variously to Japan, Hawaii (and Australia), Alaska and California.
Quite a bit about these cable terminuses can be found at the Oregon Fishermen's Cable Committee web site.
www.ofcc.com/cable_locations.htm
The OFCC worked closely from the mid-1990s onward with at least three cable operators, Tyco, Alaska Northstar and Southern Cross (which has the main US-Australia loops). They have a special agreement that basically amounts to a collaborative approach to actual or potential cable snags by trawlers.
The background makes for interesting reading. "The Oregon Fishermen's Undersea Cable Committee Agreement (Oregon Fishermen's Agreement) is the first effort by two industries to discuss, describe and delineate their shared use of a community resource -- the ocean . . . The Oregon Fishermen's Agreement is intended to prevent damage to the fiber optic cable by releasing a Participating Fisherman from possible civil liability for ordinary negligence to WCICI/ANC/NorthStar Network under defined circumstances rather than by relying on fear and litigation."
www.ofcc.com/about_ofcc.htm
There's also an International Cable Protection Committee with what looks like a pretty complete listing of all active, retired and planned cable routes at:
www.iscpc.org
-- fh
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Frank Coluccio wrote:
Kidding aside, these "errors" are actually intentional, and the publisher makes no bones about it at the bottom of the page. See disclaimer under the South Atlantic Ocean:
"Cable Routes do not represent all subsea cable networks and do not reflect actual location of cables"
The relevant charts and or current navigation software have the cables well marked because mariners have an obligation under several international treaties (going back to 1884) not to hit them... If you have the tools to go on a "fishing trip" you have the tools to find the cable. If you obfuscate the location of cables I can plead ignorance when I drag it up with my achor.
http://mapserver.maptech.com/mapserver/nautical_symbols/L4.html
Like with back-hoeing through fiber, if you think hitting a submarine cable is bad there's plenty other stuff out there that has potentially disastrous consequences, gas lines, oil lines, well heads, high voltage power lines, and of course lots of other things that fall into the category of navigational hazards.
joelja -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Joel Jaeggli Unix Consulting joelja@uoregon.edu GPG Key Fingerprint: 5C6E 0104 BAF0 40B0 5BD3 C38B F000 35AB B67F 56B2