Submarine Communications Cable - Environmental Impact

Environmental Impact

The main point of interaction of cables with marine life is in the benthic zone of the oceans where the majority of cable lies. Recent studies (in 2003 and 2006) have indicated that cables pose minimal impacts on life in these environments. In sampling sediment cores around cables and in areas removed from cables, there were few statistically significant differences in organism diversity or abundance. The main difference was that the cables provided an attachment point for anemones that typically could not grow in soft sediment areas. Data from 1877 to 1955 showed a total of 16 cable faults caused by the entanglement of various whales, but such deadly entanglements have entirely ceased after the transition from telegraph cables to coaxial cables and then fiber-optic cables (the new cables are better designed in terms of torsional balance so that they have less of a tendency to coil).