Scientists hope underwater fiber-optic cables can help save endangered orcas

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — As dawn broke over San Juan Island, a team of scientists stood on the deck of a barge and unspooled over a mile of fiber-optic cable into the frigid waters of the Salish Sea. Working by headlamp, they fed the line from the rocky shore down to the seafloor — home to

The bet is that the same hair-thin strands that carry internet signals can be transformed into a continuous underwater microphone to capture the — information that could reveal how they respond to ship traffic, food scarcity and . If the experiment works, the thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables that already crisscross the ocean floor could be turned into a vast listening network that could inform conservation efforts worldwide.