Why are sharks attracted to fiber optic cables?

Why are sharks attracted to fiber optic cables?

It is believed that the electrical current in the fiber-optic lines attract the sharks, triggering a feeding reflex. Sharks are known to have volt sensors in their mouths to find prey so the optical fiber cables may “confuse” them into thinking it is food.

Do fiber optic cables go across the ocean?

Subsea or submarine cables are fiber optic cables that connect countries across the world via cables laid on the ocean floor. These cables – often thousands of miles in length – are able to transmit huge amounts of data rapidly from one point to another.

Are sharks attacking the WIFI?

Sharks’ attraction to undersea fiber-optic cables has been well-documented over the years. Reports of sharks biting the undersea cables that zip our data around the world date to at least 1987. …

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What effect does puffing up have on the swell shark?

Swell shark The Kelp Forestis also home to swell sharks. This species gets its name from a hydraulic defense mechanism: A swell shark will tuck itself into a tight place and take in a large amount of water, puffing up to prevent predators from dislodging it.

Are sharks eating WIFI cables?

One of these animals are sharks, who are attracted to the magnetic streamer fields and tend to bite through the cables! According to Network World, even Google -2\% GOOGL has had to wrap their internet cables in Kevlar-like material to prevent damaging shark bites.

Are there wires in the ocean?

In fact, “Ninety-nine percent of international data is transmitted by wires at the bottom of the ocean called submarine communications cables”, according to Mental Floss. So the vast majority of the information in the world travels through the ocean on over a million kilometers of cable.

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What eats swell sharks?

Swell sharks, young and old, are subject to predation by larger fish, including some other shark species. They are also food objects for seals and sea lions. Most people do not consider these fish fit to eat nor are they considered sport fish.

Are shark attacks a threat to Ocean fiber optic cables?

There are many, many things that can go wrong as you lay thousands of miles of fiber optic cable along the ocean’s floor. Earthquakes can rip things up, as can fishing hooks. But now we know of a new threat: Shark attacks.

Why are sharks attracted to the Internet?

Older copper cables have not seen the same problem, and it has been speculated that sharks are attracted to the magnetic field created by the high voltage carried through the cables, which resembles those created by fish. Fibre optic cables carry data across continents, in this case across the Pacific, and are the backbone of the internet.

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Why do sharks bite cables?

The cable protection folks really have no idea why sharks bite cables either, although some suggest it may be due to “electro magnetic fields from a suspended cable strumming in currents,” they say in their report. If you had just a piece of plastic out there shaped like a cable, there’s a good chance they’d bite that too.

What is Google doing to protect undersea cables from sharks?

Google is going to great lengths to reinforce some of the world’s undersea data cables after a series of shark bites, a product manager has revealed. The fibre optic cables, which carry internet traffic around the world, are protected by a series of layers to protect against impact and from movement that could break the glass fibres.