Google cables have a new threat underseas: Sharks

The News Minute| August 16, 2014| 11.00 am IST There is a new threat to Google fibre-optic cables at the ocean floor: Sharks. The company has invested in two major undersea cables connecting the western US to Asia, and a third cable that extends Google's network within Asia. Sharks can detect magnetic fields as they have miniature volt sensors in their mouths that they use to detect prey. "Just a little bite is enough to get through the jacket and damage the fibres," Chris Lowe, a professor who runs shark lab at California State University, Long Beach, was quoted as saying. Google, however, ensures its cable is sheathed in a Kevlar-like protective coating to keep the sharks from chomping through the line, Network World reported, quoting Google product manager Dan Belcher from a Google marketing event in Boston last week. In the 1980s, a deep-ocean cable was reportedly cut by crocodile sharks four times. with IANS