Cama Beach, WA, United States

Cama Beach, WA: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Cama Beach is located on the southwest shore of Camano Island in Island County, Washington, United States, facing Saratoga Passage. As a coastal site within Puget Sound's island geography, it serves as a submarine cable landing point connecting the surrounding island communities of the Pacific Northwest. One submarine cable lands at Cama Beach, linking it directly to the regional undersea cable network of the United States.

The single cable landing here, the Whidbey Island-Camano Island cable, represents a short inter-island connection within Washington State. At just 4 km in length, this is a domestic, intra-state link rather than an intercontinental or transoceanic route, reflecting the practical role Cama Beach plays in providing connectivity between Camano Island and the neighboring Whidbey Island.

Cables Landing at Cama Beach, WA

The Whidbey Island-Camano Island cable is the sole submarine cable landing at Cama Beach. With a length of 4 km, it is one of the shortest submarine cable routes recorded in the United States. The cable reached ready-for-service status in 1999 and connects locations entirely within the United States, linking Camano Island and Whidbey Island across the short water crossing of Saratoga Passage. Both endpoints of this cable are domestic, making it a purely intra-national link designed to serve inter-island connectivity needs in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

Regional Context

Within the broader United States submarine cable landscape, which encompasses 113 cables across 160 landing points, Cama Beach hosts a single cable and ranks within the top 69% of all domestic landing points by cable count. Major United States landing points such as Boca Raton, FL, and San Juan, PR, each host eight cables, while others including Hermosa Beach, CA, Kapolei, HI, and Myrtle Beach, SC, each serve five. Cama Beach's profile is more modest, reflecting its role as a localized inter-island connection point rather than a hub for long-distance or international submarine traffic.

Network Role

Cama Beach functions as a single-cable terminus, serving the specific purpose of bridging Camano Island and Whidbey Island via a short 4 km submarine route. This landing point does not anchor any intercontinental or transoceanic corridor; instead, it provides direct undersea connectivity between two adjacent islands in Washington State's Puget Sound region. The cable's 1999 ready-for-service date places it among the early generation of documented domestic submarine links in the United States.

In the regional submarine cable graph of the United States, Cama Beach represents an important category of landing point: the short-haul, inter-island domestic link that addresses geographic disconnection between island communities. Such connections, while limited in scale compared to multi-cable international hubs, form a distinct and practical segment of the country's overall submarine cable infrastructure.