The wreck of the famous Titanic will be protected from tourists and unwanted explorers under an unpublished treaty concluded in 2003 between the United States and the United Kingdom which comes into force on Tuesday.
"This crucial agreement with the United States to preserve the wreck means that it will now be treated with the sensitivity and respect due to the last home of 1,500 people," said British Minister of Defense Nusrat Ghani in a statement. the sea during a visit to Belfast (Northern Ireland) where the liner had been built.
This treaty, signed in 2003, was ratified last November by the head of the American diplomacy, Mark Pompeo. It allows the two countries “to grant or refuse licenses authorizing them to enter the wreck or to extract objects from it. "
Leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912 to reach New York, the gigantic ocean liner, the largest in the world at the time of its launch, had tragically sunk after having struck an iceberg five days later.
Of the 2,224 passengers and crew, nearly 1,500 had died in the tragedy.
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Today, the wreck rests in international waters 650 km from the Canadian coast by 3,843 meters deep. But since its discovery in 1985 by Professor Robert Ballard, the Titanic has been regularly visited by treasure seekers and tourists who go to the scene of this drama.
In 2018, the company OceanGate had organized for tourists wishing to visit the wreck at the price of $ 100,000 submarine descents, these being used at the same time for a scientist who maps the ship in three dimensions.
During an expedition to the wreck in 2012, scientists had noted "recent damage to the hull of the Titanic by submarines".
They had also alerted against "disturbing quantities of waste and debris thrown by boats on the surface or abandoned near the wreckage". The International Maritime Organization was then concerned "about the impacts already visible, which dishonor this burial site. "
Scientists say numerous expeditions to the wreck have accelerated its degradation and estimate that it will be gone by 2030.
In the summer of 2016, using a neutron radiation imaging technique, a team of researchers from the Laue-Langevin Institute demonstrated that a bacteria is eating away at the remains of the liner and should make it disappear gradually the wreck.
