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Comment by toephu2 | Hacker News Reader

"It's slowly being consumed by a thriving undersea ecosystem — and by what scientists suspect is sheer human greed."

I was confused by this statement, how is it being consumed by human greed?

I clicked on the link and it brought me to an article titled "Stop plundering of the Titanic, says expert who found wreck" and said "Russians are selling dives"[1]

How can anyone be diving down to the Titanic and stealing from it? It's 12,500 feet below the ocean's surface. The deepest humans can dive with scuba gear is about 350 feet. Sure, maybe they are taking robots down there, but how many such commercial under water robots exist that can go down to that depth? Aren't these very expensive robots? I doubt these are being used for tourist scavenger hunting trips to the Titanic?

[1]https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/stop-plunde...

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> Dr Ballard also displayed photos to the audience showing areas where rust on the ship had been disturbed by what he believes to be robotic submarines landing on its surface.

If you've got the money such things can be had, this one goes to 36,000ft https://newatlas.com/triton-submersible-36002/56810/

Also, basically anything in the world can be rented.

As for the robots, I have no idea how many 4,000m capable WROVs are operating around the world, but it is measured in the high hundreds, if not low thousands. My past and current employer alone have delivered handling equipment for some 250 ROVs combined.

(These are heavy duty unmanned underwater vehicles, tethered to a ship via an umbilical cable. Operator sits topside, sees what is going on via cameras, operating a pair of manipulator arms and assorted tools via fancy joysticks. Think a drone on steroids, Mad Max style.)

And yes, they are expensive, as is the vessel you need to support them.

IMHO it's better that they "steal" things which may then become preserved, than let it rot away.

there is a vast debris field with objects strewn about from where the ship broke apart in two piece.

the things are laying on the ocean floor, and yes it's costly, but ROV tech to go down there and pick things up does exist.

this place apparently has a bunch of pieces of stuff.

https://www.arnabontempsmuseum.com/the-titanic-museum-in-can...

And from what I understand, the ship itself isn’t allowed to be touched the field is. Hence why folks are wanting it marked as a grave.

Artifacts have been periodically salvaged from the wreck between 1987-2000. RMS Titanic Corp now has title to those artifacts and has periodically talked about returning to the wreck to salvage more. The whole thing has been tied up in court cases since the 1987 expedition, which is par for the course with international maritime salvage.

https://www.noaa.gov/gc-international-section/rms-titanic-sa...

A quick skim of eBay shows bits for sale - whether or not they are real is a different matter though.

https://www.ebay.com/b/Titanic-Artifact/35965/bn_57670677

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