Haiyang Island bordering China's Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea has been reeling in pitch-black darkness the last 20 hours after fishing boats damaged Asia's longest submarine cable on Wednesday afternoon.

The accident occurred at around 3:00 PM on Wednesday between the island and Dalian, a major port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

At least 10 high-powered trawlers were fishing for abalone, sea cucumbers and other expensive seafood in waters near where the cable lay. Their fishing nets, laden with their hauls, reportedly became entangled with the cable, and the cable burst as the trawlers dragged their nets along the seabed.

The provincial maritime police rushed to the site and drove all the fishing boats away immediately.

Police said they later detained the boat owners.

Power supply authorities in Dalian have sent a fleet to the site to carry out emergency repairs, but the power failure might last for at least another two or three days, said a spokesman for the local government in a telephone interview with Xinhua on Thursday morning.

"However, if the damaged parts can't be repaired, they will have to be replaced," he said without giving his name. "In which case, it could take as long as two months to fully restore power supplies. And this could cost more than 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million)."

By Thursday morning, the power failure had already resulted in at least 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) worth of direct economic losses, particularly for local seafood processing companies.

Haiyang Island is home to about 10,000 people, mostly fishermen.

The submarine cable under the Bohai and the Yellow Seas was built in 1987 at the cost of 24 million yuan (US$2.9 million). Its designed life span is 50 years.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2005)