A large boat made waves off the coast of Pismo Beach as it installed parts of an ocean-spanning fiber optic cable network Tuesday afternoon.
The CS Rene Descartes – a 470-foot French cable ship – was visible Tuesday afternoon from most communities in southern San Luis Obispo County as it continued work installing a network of fiber cables optics, RTI Solutions President Chris Brungardt told the Tribune.
Brungardt said the ship was also in the area doing related work in late April, installing fiber optic cable under the ocean floor for the JUNO cable network that will connect the United States and Japan with thousands of miles of one-inch thick data cables.
Cables installed by ships like the CS Rene Descartes come ashore at a steel conduit that was installed in 2022 before terminating in a safe on land in the parking lot of the ship’s vehicle recreation area. Oceano Dunes State, at the end of Grand Avenue, Brungardt said.
With transpacific cables currently connecting Grover Beach to the rest of the world, the region has proven a popular hub for submarine cables, Brungardt said. About 95% of global telecommunications traffic is carried by undersea fiber optic cables, he said.
Brungardt said Grover Beach and Morro Bay are two of the most popular locations for underwater fiber optic connections in California because they are equidistant from Los Angeles and San Francisco while being one of the mainland points closest to Hawaii, and have fewer restrictions against the installation of cables such as Santa Barbara or Monterey counties.
Brungardt said the CS Rene Descartes has completed its work off San Luis Obispo County and will depart soon, but area residents will likely see a similar vessel performing similar tasks in August, when a sixth cable submarine connecting Oregon, California, Guam and Singapore will be added to the Grover Beach hub through a similar pipe-laying procedure.
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