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Damage to subsea communication cables near the Faroe and Shetlands Islands left much of the islands without internet access. Subsea fiber-optics cables in the south of France were also cut in what authorities call acts of sabotage.

A month after the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline were sabotaged in a series of explosions, critical European subsea infrastructure continues to be damaged.

Last week the SHEFA-2 undersea cable linking the Faroe Islands to mainland Scotland via the Shetland and Orkney Islands was damaged in two separate incidents leaving much of the islands without internet connection.

In the south of France three key subsea cables connecting the city of Marseille to Lyon, Milan, and Barcelona were purposely cut, the cable’s operator reported, impacting internet connectivity worldwide.

While French authorities suspect an act of sabotage, their Scottish counterparts remain more cautious about what caused the damage to the cables.

Similar to the Svalbard cable incidents, in which Russian fishing vessels passed repeatedly over the areas where the cables were located, police investigating the Faroe and Shetland incidents suggested that it was likely fishing vessels, which damaged the cables.

It is very rare that we have two problems at the same time
Páll Vesturbú, Head of infrastructure for Faroese Telecom
Fishing trawlers routinely cause damage to subsea cables when fishing nets or in some cases anchors drag along the seafloor. It is the frequency with which these events have been occurring that alarms experts.

"We expect it will be fishing vessels that damaged the cable but it is very rare that we have two problems at the same time," Páll Vesturbú, the head of infrastructure for Faroese Telecom stated.

Hans Tino Hansen, CEO of Risk Intelligence, a firm specializing in threat analysis at sea, in port, and on land offered a similar analysis.

“The probability of this happening once by mistake is low and the probability of this happening twice is insignificant and non-existent for a third and fourth time when measured against normal trawler behavior,” explained Hansen.

Chinese or Russian fishing boats my shiny metal ass

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Chinese or Russian fishing boats my shiny metal ass

Yep…..

This was not a boating accident!!