Experts: Titanic wreckage disintegrating rapidly

[IndianaGreen]

Experts: Titanic wreckage disintegrating rapidly
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 Posted: 7:37 PM EDT (2337 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The Titanic, sunk by an iceberg on a calm April night, is being quickly claimed by those icy waters as man and nature cause rapid disintegration some 18 years after the wreck's discovery off the coast of Canada.

A team of researchers, scientists and explorers returned last month from a trip aboard the world's largest research vessel, the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh from Russia, to the site of the Titanic, the world's most famous shipwreck discovered in 1985 in international waters off the Newfoundland coast.

"On board the Keldysh were people who had not been down since 1999 and they saw marked damage. In reviewing pictures from 1986, I see a progressive deterioration in the bow and the infrastructure is collapsing," said diver David Bright.

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Some experts believe that salvage operations and numerous visits by treasure hunters and tourists have hastened the decomposition naturally caused by rust, saltwater and other natural factors.

McLaren contends that over-fishing on the nearby Grand Banks has depleted fish stocks that would normally consume tiny organic matter that is now concentrated in the waters around the Titanic and hastening its breakdown.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/08/13/titanic.deteriorates.reut/index.html