Google Has To Wrap Its Underwater Cables In Kevlar To Protect Them From Shark Attacks
Screenshot / YouTube Shark biting a submarine cable
Google is protecting its trans-Pacific underwater cables from shark attacks by wrapping them in Kevlar, according to Network World's Brandon Butler.Google product manager Dan Belcher reportedly dropped this factoid at a recent Google Cloud Roadshow while talking about the great lengths Google goes to protect its infrastructure.
As Butler points out, sharks have long been a fiber cable's foe: In 1987, The New York Times wrote that sharks showed "an inexplicable taste" for the cables, which were new at the time.
Earlier this week, Google announced it would be teaming up with five Asian telecom companies to fund a $300 million underwater cable network connecting the US to Japan to ensure a super-fast connection for broadband and mobile content. Apparently, that project will require a lot of Kevlar.
(Hat-tip to BGR where we first saw this story.)