Government considering nationwide monitoring system for undersea cables
Wednesday, 13 May 2026
The Government is considering a national monitoring system to protect critical undersea cables from fishers and any potential bad faith actors.
The minister responsible says it would be mainly to stop fishers from dredging the submarine infrastructure up, but officials have highlighted acts of sabotage against similar infrastructure overseas.
Almost all of New Zealand’s internet and 30% of the country’s power is reliant on the submarine infrastructure which connects the North and South Islands and New Zealand to other countries.
Last year officials undertook a threat assessment for the cables which found New Zealand’s are generally well set up when compared to international best practice, but “because of the growing international threat” Associate Transport Minister James Meager asked for them to come up with a 10 point no-cost plan to mitigate vulnerabilities.
A briefing from March said eight of those were now underway, with two reliant on partners.
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The briefing did not list all 10 initiatives but said they included a cable break exercise, establishing a formal data-risk sharing regime and creating a national surveillance and warning system.
Meager told The Post a cable break exercise was conducted in August in the Hauraki Gulf and Muriwai Beach cable protection areas to determine whether an automated monitoring system could spot boats carrying out unlawful behaviour, such as a fishing vessel trawling.
“The trial showed it was possible to detect such activity. The trial also tested the use of maritime radio to advise mariners of the danger and the legislative requirements associated with entering the area.”
He said the Government was considering a national system for this type of monitoring, but would not say when it could happen.
“Further details will be confirmed in the near future.”
The minister said most of the threats to the cables were “non-nefarious” but in the latest threat assessment officials noted other countries had highlighted the danger of deliberate damage.
“The potential for threat actors to deliberately damage cables have been highlighted by the European Union, NATO, and Australia.
“They highlight that deliberate damage may be a grey zone tactic and instances occur against a backdrop of strategic competition, tension or conflict.”
Meager said New Zealand had joined international calls to protect the security, resilience and integrity of undersea cables.
In the March briefing officials acknowledged a range of scenarios where cables had been damaged which included the Tonga underwater volcano eruption in 2022.
The document also featured the cable cutting near Taiwan’s Matsu Islands in 2023 which was widely reported to have been caused by Chinese vessels and caused disruption to services for 14,000 people for several weeks.