Chair of the EMB Working Group: Submarine Cables, a Revolution in Ocean Monitoring

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Submarine telecommunication cables cross every ocean basin, and there is growing evidence that they can be turned into a dense, permanent observing infrastructure for the deep sea, a part of the ocean that remains largely unmonitored. Turning that potential into an operational reality requires far more than sensing technology: it raises questions of deployment and maintenance, environmental and societal impacts, data sharing, law, and maritime security.

This is the objective of the new European Marine Board (EMB) Working Group on “Submarine Cables: A Revolution in Ocean Monitoring”, whose kick-off meeting was held on 8 September 2026 at IMREDD, Université Côte d’Azur, in Nice, following an introductory meeting on 29 June 2026.

Aims of the Working Group

The Working Group will produce a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of the use of submarine cables for ocean monitoring, considering now obsolete, currently active, and newly laid telecommunication cables. Its scope covers:

the monitoring opportunities offered by the different sensing technologies that can be applied to submarine cables, and their respective advantages and limitations;
the practical requirements of deploying and maintaining such systems;
their environmental and social implications;
the legal implications of acquiring, sharing and using the resulting data;
the maritime defence and security dimension, both for protecting the infrastructure and for detecting threats;
research and policy recommendations to further develop the technology and its use in ocean observing.

A central question throughout is how cable-based systems can complement the existing ocean observing system, contributing to the Global Ocean Observing System and Essential Ocean Variables, and deliver a concrete service to society, from geohazard early warning to climate and biodiversity monitoring.

The group brings together 12 experts from across Europe, combining expertise in submarine cable technology, cable-based sensing and the information it delivers, legal and geopolitical aspects, and the impacts of using such systems. I am chairing this working group with Luciana das Neves (CIIMAR, Portugal) as Co-Chair, and provides input to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

The Working Group will deliver an EMB Position Paper in late 2027.

Working Group members

Chair: Anthony Sladen, CNRS – Géoazur – Université Côte d’Azur – Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, France
Co-Chair: Luciana das Neves, CIIMAR, Portugal
Chris Bean, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), Ireland
Giuseppa Buscaino, CNR-IAS, Italy
Michael Clare, National Oceanography Centre (NOC), UK
Juanjo Dañobeitia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
Isabel Iglesias Fernandez, CIIMAR, Portugal
Martin Landrø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Tobias Liebetrau, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Nele Matz-Lück, Kiel University, Germany
Hrvoje Mihanović, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF), Croatia
Jens Schneider von Deimling, Kiel University, Germany

Thanks to Paula Kellett and the EMB Secretariat for facilitating the group, and to IMREDD for hosting the meeting in Nice.

More about the Working Group

Science Policy on Anthony Sladen's webpage

Chair of the EMB Working Group: Submarine Cables, a Revolution in Ocean Monitoring

Aims of the Working Group

Working Group members