Satellite IDs Ships That Cut Cables

1sockchuck writes "Undersea telecom cable operator Reliance Globalcom was able to use satellite images to identify two ships that dropped anchor in the wrong place, damaging submarine cables and knocking Middle East nations offline in early February. The company used satellite images to study the movements of the two ships, and shared the information with officials in Dubai, who impounded the two vessels. The NANOG list has a discussion of where Reliance might have obtained satellite images to provide that level of detail. Google News links more coverage of the developments."

Some more details coming in now....

[superash]

Indian officer held for undersea cable damage

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/indian-officer-held-for-undersea-cable-damage/63234-3.html

Nanog Thread

[Rufus211]

GMane is a *far* easier interface to read than whatever nanog's official archive uses:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.operators.nanog/54752 [gmane.org]

Re:Coverup

[WaltBusterkeys]

It was Iraq and North Korea!

Except the second ship was South Korean, our ally. North Korea only has a handful of blue water ships. South Korea, electronics manufacturer to the world, has many.

When in doubt, "Korean" mean South Korean.

Re:Cite your sources

[WaltBusterkeys]

Your wish is the community's command. Here's ZDNet on cable statistics [zdnet.co.uk]

According to one paper presented at last year's SubOptic conference in Baltimore, Maryland, rates of cable fault in water over 1km deep are less than 0.1 faults per year, per 1,000km of installed cable. This implies around 50 deepwater repairs per year, globally. At depths of less than 1km, failure rates hovered between 1-2 per 1,000km in the 1990s, but have been steadily declining. According to a SubOptic 2004 paper, the rate in 2003 was 0.2 fault per 1,000km.

In other words, that's 50 deep-water cuts per year, in addition to some more shallow-water cuts per year.

Another expert puts it this way [zdnet.com]:

He said there are approximately 50 cable cuts a year, 65 percent of which are due to fishing trawlers dragging heavy nets and 18 percent of which are due to shipsâ(TM) anchors. âoeThey donâ(TM)t even track terrorism,â he said. âoeCable cuts are a routine part of the business.â

These statistics don't include power failures and other problems with cables that arise from the land side; if a switching station goes down then the cable goes dark, even if it's still intact.

Re:Coverup

[pipatron]

My guess is that it was a South Korean shipping company.

That's quite likely, since South Korea build the most ships in the world.

Re:Why aren't those ships in the registry?

[WaltBusterkeys]

Not all ships owned by Korean companies are registered as Korean flag vessels.

Look at US cruise lines -- most US-owned cruise liners are registered in other countries (usually the Bahamas).

See flag of convenience [wikipedia.org] for a list of countries that are the most frequent places to register vessels. There are Korean-owned vessels registered in Belize, Cambodia, Cyprus ... etc.

Re:Coverup

[WaltBusterkeys]

I actually retract my statement above. It's not clear whether the ship is North or South Korean at this point. The only entry in the international ship registry [e-ships.net] matching an MT Ann ("Merchant Transport Ann") is a North Korean vessel.

5105 7320069 ANN HMZE6 Oil Products Tanker 22600 1973 12 Korea (North)

However, there's an "Ankuk" on the same list that's a South Korean ship that would also match:

5090 8130033 ANKUK NO. 7 Oil Products Tanker 2474 1982 06 Korea (South)

I'm no expert on ships, so it's possible I'm looking in all the wrong places. Or that there's a translation problem from Korean to English. Maybe somebody else has a better lead?

Re:weird, huh?

[CustomDesigned]

Applying the standard birthday paradox math, the probability that at least 2 of 50 cuts in a year fall on the same day is 97%. So the weird part is why these particular same day cuts were news. The odds of two cuts on the same day affecting the same country group are lower. It is harder to quantify "country group", however.

Re:Man, are those guys good, or what?

[Guysmiley777]

Has anyone actually been able to do this? Last I heard it was given up on because it was just too damn hard. That was a while ago.

US Navy whistles quietly in the corner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter [wikipedia.org]

Re:Man, are those guys good, or what?

[infonography]

Or so the Illuminati would have you believe.

I was really expecting a golden submarine, the Leif Ericson to be responsible. But I would guess Hagbard Celine to be too clever to be spotted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagbard_Celine [wikipedia.org]