There have been calls for official regulation of the deep-sea tourism sector in the wake of this week’s Titan submersible tragedy.
Following confirmation of the deaths of the five people on board the submersible vessel, which was exploring the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean, due to what US officials have called a “catastrophic implosion” people have urged more regulation.
The deep-sea tourism sector may be niche, but it is rapidly growing in popularity, though remains largely unregulated.
“The government won’t regulate until there’s a demonstrated need that industry has failed to self regulate,” Jon Heshka, an associate professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada, told Time Magazine.
“If things are humming along and the activities are being administered, more or less incident free, and businesses are making money and clients are willing to shell out the coin, there’s no need for the government to become involved. However, if there are particularly high-profile incidents, then that becomes the business of the government to regulate,” he said.
“Even the most reliable technology can fail, and therefore accidents will happen,” Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the UK’s University of Portsmouth told the Associated Press. “With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this.”
