There are four presenters of this workshop.

The first presenter is David Tossell, of Alcatel-Lucent.  He is speaking on Piracy.

A total of 76 vessels recently attacked by pirates.  Despite the almost humorous things that come to mind when mentioning pirates, it's not that funny of an issue.  Submarine cables are located all over the work.

The threat of piracy and robbery is nothing new, says Tossell.  It's recently become more of a problem.  Tossell gives a few statistics of piracy incidents that are in the hundreds. “Pirates in the Gulf are more violent than their Somali counterparts,” Tossell says.

Ships moving to repair cables are particularly at risk because of the speed that the ships move: 11 – 12 knots.

 

Anthony Rix presents the solution to the problem.  He is maritime security Director for a security  company.  The first point he makes is that security should be considered at all times.

To begin with, a risk assessment is paramount.  These will produce options for risk mitigation measures.  These range from safety training on shore to physical security offshore.  Physical security includes things like razor wire on the sides of the ship as well as local security forces.

 

Ryoichi Yatabe is speaking today about dealing the aftermath of fukushima and nuclear contamination on the water.  As many would remember, the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami occured on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm.  Yatabe shows a video of the earthquake actually happening from a camera on a ship off the coast.  Even there it was an impressive sight.

More than 20 cable faults in 7 systems occurred.  The company KCS repaired 11 of the cables.  They experienced a number of challenges.  The first of which was easing customers' confusion.  Fear of nuclear contamination caused chaos during the process.  Next, they had to determine a permissible level of exposure, so that they could repair cables near the fukushima disaster.  Preventative measures they took included revising the manual on security against radioactivity, collecting data, using protective gear, and using multiple ways of measuring radioactivity while working.    Lastly, cable repair was particularly difficult because of the earthquake.  Landslides  had congested and buried the cables.  The repairs took a total of 154 days.