Ocean Planet - Ballard to Return to Titanic

Nearly 20 years after first finding the sunken remains of the R.M.S. Titanic, marine explorer Robert Ballard will return in June to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study the ship's rapid deterioration. Dr. Ballard and his partners announced the expedition today, the 92nd anniversary of the ship's sinking.

A professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and director of its Institute for Archaeological Oceanography, Dr. Ballard and scientists from NOAA, Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration (MAIFE) and other institutions will spend 11 days at the site, mapping the ship and conducting scientific analyses of its deterioration.

"We know Titanic has been naturally deteriorating over time, but I'm convinced that the deterioration is being accelerated by manmade impacts as well," said Dr. Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. "The 1986 photo mosaic of the ship that we published in National Geographic magazine will serve as a baseline for comparative studies to determine the level of degradation that has occurred since then."

Funded primarily by NOAA and working aboard the NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown, the May 30 through June 9 expedition will use Dr. Ballard's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to conduct a more sophisticated documentation of the state of Titanic than was possible in the 1980s. National Geographic is also a funder of the expedition.

In 1985, Dr. Ballard discovered the remains of Titanic in over 12,000 feet of water off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. He returned to the site in 1986 with a National Geographic Society film crew. Since then, RMS Titanic, Inc. has obtained the rights to conduct salvage operations at the site, and has recovered more than 6,000 artifacts. Several tour companies and movie producers have also visited the site in manned submersible vehicles.

In 2001, NOAA issued "Guidelines for Research, Recovery and Salvage of RMS Titanic," including a general principle that activities should have minimum adverse impact on Titanic and its artifacts.

"We believe that the world's oceans are the museums of the deep and that it is in the interest of all peoples to protect and conserve both wrecks of recent history as well as submerged sites of antiquity for future generations," Dr. Ballard said. "We are returning to Titanic to assess the state of the ship and help determine its future."