Russian Trawlers Go Fishing for Cables

London’s Daily Telegraph has published a lead story outlining how a Russian fleet of trawlers has been surveying and loitering over cables in the waters around the United Kingdom. There is nothing new in Russian trawlers being tasked with non-fishing duties, with some never having been seen to have landed any fish; the novel element of the story is the scale on which the Russians are carrying out this operation.

The Telegraph has logged more than 500 separate incidents where Russian trawlers have either loitered above cables linking Britain with the United States to the West of to Europe to the East, or have precisely followed their routes over long distances. The data was gathered by Global Fishing Watch since 2021, and identified 17 trawlers in particular involved in the activity.

The assessment in the report is that the trawlers are precisely mapping the routes of the cables, so that at a later stage unmanned submarine vehicles will autonomously be able to interfere with these cables, either by cutting them or by placing sleeves around the cables for the purpose of interrupting the cable’s data flow.

The problem is compounded because the Royal Navy does not have the resources to identify where the trawlers are operating, and then does not have capability to intervene or to monitor the activity, a task often undertaken by submarines.

This story was originally published by The Maritime Executive. Read the full story at The Maritime Executive →