Russian trawlers loitered over UK undersea cables more than 500 times, Telegraph analysis finds
Tracking data show 17 Russian fishing vessels moving slowly over cables that link Britain with Europe and the US. A NATO source says it is aware of their activity.
Russian fishing trawlers have loitered above, or followed for miles, the undersea communications cables linking Britain with Europe and the United States in more than 500 incidents, according to an analysis published by The Telegraph. The newspaper says the pattern suggests the vessels are mapping the exact position of the fibre-optic cables on the seabed, which could make them targets in a future conflict with NATO.
The Telegraph cross-referenced four and a half years of vessel-tracking data from Global Fishing Watch with nautical charts of the cables. It identified 17 ships from five companies that spent long periods at low speed close to the charted cable routes. North of Scotland, Russian fishing boats spent 337 hours over the Atlantic Crossing 1 cable, which links the US with the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, 322 of them in April 2023 alone.
"We're absolutely aware of what Russian civilian fishing ships are up to and where," a NATO source told the newspaper. "Some of these ships have never seen a single fish on their deck." British ministers have said Moscow is using "commercial proxies" to threaten undersea infrastructure.
The cables carry data for banks, hospitals, transport networks and mobile phones, and their general routes are public, but an attack would need their precise location. According to The Telegraph, the UK government is setting out plans for people who sabotage cables to face long prison sentences and unlimited fines.