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Segero is a work boat built in 1998, docked at Fairhaven Wharf on the Samoa Peninsula. | Photos from Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation Area.

Is happening. The infrastructure construction of the two longest optical cables in the world has begun. This optical cable will extend from the Samoa Peninsula to Singapore and Taiwan along the Pacific Ocean sea floor, with a length of more than 10,000 miles.

You may have noticed the bright orange hull of Segero (pictured above) that recently appeared in Humboldt Bay. The ship has been working to thread fiber optic cables through conduits connected to landing sites near the old pulp mill.

The project called Echo Cable System is being installed by RTI Infrastructure, and subsidiaries of Google and Facebook have invested in it. 

In Samoa, RTI Infrastructure used inclined drills to install 10-inch pipes that had sunk 50 feet below the seabed and extended 1.2 miles offshore. According to Larry Oetker, executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation Area, Segero was used to thread fiber optic cables through the conduit.

Schematic diagram of the cable landing site and four landing pipelines on the Samoa Peninsula. | Image courtesy of the California Coastal Commission.

The landing point is located on the land owned by the seaport area and is planned to be developed as an onshore fish factory operated by Nordic Aquafarms.

In a recent telephone conversation, Oetker explained the optical fiber project in detail. He said, Segero, the big orange ship, like a plow, buried the cable five feet below the seabed until it was about 30 miles offshore. 

"This way it won't have any impact on the fishery," Altek said. At 30 miles away, the cable will be laid along the seabed.

Fishermen expressed their concerns about the project at the California Coastal Commission's hearing in June. Ken Bates, vice chairman of the Humboldt Fishermen Marketing Association, told committee members that although his organization did not oppose the project, its members expressed “serious concern” about the proposed mitigation measures.

Before approving the project, the Coastal Commission added some approval conditions. One requires the RTI infrastructure to submit a marine wildlife monitoring and emergency plan. The company must also notify the fishermen of the location of the cable and comply with the revised fishing agreement between the fiber optic cable company and the fishery.

The agreement aims to avoid and alleviate conflicts between the installation, operation and maintenance of the cable project and commercial fishing activities in the area.

Approved the California Coastal Commission’s proposed route map for submarine cables. The green and yellow routes are under construction.

You may also have noticed the recent and ongoing construction of National Highway 255 between Samoa and Arcata. Although the RTI infrastructure works on the seaside portion of the project, a Colorado company called Vero Fiber Networks is laying the pipeline from the landing site to the north into Acata, where it will be connected to the data center. 

From there, Oetker said, the line will be installed along the existing broadband right of way, which is adjacent to the I-5 corridor east of National Highway 299 to near Reading. Once connected, the new fiber optic line will become the latest connection in the world's huge and growing submarine fiber optic cable network.

Four steel pipes were connected to the landing site, leaving enough space for future connections. When Google announced the project, it boasted: "Infrastructure investments such as these will have a substantial and measurable impact on regional economic activity."

Oetker said the staff in the harbor area are excited about this development.

"This is just another thing that brings clean and green industries to Humboldt," he said. "It will lay the foundation for the future economy of our region. Most people will not even notice it, but they will benefit from it."

A map of existing submarine cables drawn by TeleGeography. | Creative Commons License.

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