Discoverer returns to sea to let the Titanic rest

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2004 | by Gary Levin; Brian Mansfield; Claudia Puig

TELEVISION

It's the subject of the top-grossing movie and countless documentaries. But now the man who discovered the Titanic is going back for a 17-day expedition for a special to be televised partly live from underwater. Nearly 20 years after he discovered the wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean, Robert Ballard will Return to Titanic in a one-hour special June 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.

The goal: to stem rapid deterioration of the ship and protect it from being considered an aquatic tourist trap for divers and treasure seekers.

"We're trying to make people aware that the deep sea is a museum, but right now it's being plundered," Ballard says. "We think that as many as 1 million ancient ships of antiquity (lie underwater), and yet...