Jolie Lee

USA TODAY Network

Has Shark Week hit Google?

The Internet giant says it is strengthening its underwater cables in the Pacific Ocean to protect against shark bites, reports Network World.

Google is wrapping its fiber-optic cables in a Kevlar-like material, said Dan Belcher, a product manager on the Google cloud team at a company event last week, according to Network World.

Why are sharks biting these cables in the first place?

Sharks have a "unique ability" to detect electromagnetic fields, and they may be "confused" and believe that the cable is an animal, said George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research.

"No doubt the electromagnetic fields associated with these wires are highly attractive to these sharks," Burgess said.

The underwater cables are part of a $300 million trans-Pacific cable network Google is building. It will connect west coast cities, including Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle to cities in Japan, according to a press release from NEC, a vendor for the project.

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