SUITLAND, Md., June 18 (UPI) -- Officials from the United States and other nations signed an agreement Friday to protect the site in the Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic is resting.
The agreement is intended to lead to an enforcement authority and protection of the wreck site. It is a goal long espoused by ocean explorer Robert Ballard, who discovered the sunken ship's location in 1985 and who just returned from an expedition to the Titanic co-sponsored by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Under the agreement, officials said, Titanic will be designated an international maritime memorial to those who perished there and whose remains should be respected. It will also protect the scientific, cultural and historical significance of the wreck site by regulating, within the jurisdiction of the signatories, dives to the Titanic shipwreck, requiring such activities to avoid touching or attempting to recover artifacts.
"It was important to go back to Titanic," said Craig McLean, who commanded the ship carrying the recent expedition. . "It's a cultural icon and a maritime gravesite deserving of our respect, but it's also a deep-sea laboratory where we can study the chemical, biological and human effects on the ship's rate of deterioration and apply that knowledge to many other deepwater shipwrecks and submerged cultural resources around the world. As goes Titanic, so go other shipwrecks."
