Do you have any idea how many cables are placed at the bottom of the seafloor, and why? For me 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Jules Verne’s science fiction thriller from the 1800-ties became reality the other day!

For the first time in my career as a marine geologist & surveyor I looked at miles and miles and miles of seabed, with all its life in abundance and peculiarities: the most bizarre sea anenomes, wild-looking fish, even deep sea corals, a small shark going bonkers over some fish to catch, and a sea lion darting against the camera lens, either in a fake attack or to snatch his bait. Whales abound: Humpbacks, fins, seis, and all of a sudden the horizon and the space in between was filled with dolphins, “…at least 500, probably more…” according to the whale observers on board our cable laying vessel.

I participated in an undersea cable survey off the coast of California and Oregon to explore any possibility for cable-damage due to exposure, and whether it is safe for fishermen to deploy their gear.

What intrigued me most was the fact that a lot of our phone conversations run through these fiberoptic cables, plus a lot of important computer data, in addition to TV programs. The technology and engineering behind this operation is truly amazing.

The coolest thing I have ever seen in terms of marine operation was the “dance” between the 470-foot C/V GLOBAL SENTINEL and a ROV of substantial size and weight.

We had several occasions to practically crawl toward shore into water depths as shallow as 40 feet to inspect at the termination point of the cable close to shore. It was unbelievable - a true National Geographic moment!

Besides the super-qualified ROV and ship team I encountered two fishermen who engage in a very neat collaboration with the cable industry: both parties discuss how they can work around each others needs so that both can co-exist in a harmonious way, a productive win-win situation.

This is not always like that for the same fishermen as they currently struggle to maintain their existence in competition with other fishermen from other areas. I only slowly start to understand some of the complexities these men are facing right now, but it does not sound too appealing if you hear about “tons of fish being thrown away to keep quota in check”, or, “Bad science and data causing a lot of trouble for all of us” - ? So, what is that all about?

I promised myself to find out over the next few weeks…

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 4:31 am and is filed under General, Travel, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.