The man who discovered the most famous shipwreck in history, the Titanic, says that the remains of the great ship are decaying quickly mostly due to repeated visits there by careless operators of submersibles, which land on the ship's remains and do untold damage to the wreck when used carelessly.

Bob Ballard returned to the site of the Titanic for the first time since he discovered the wreck in 1985 and was stunned by the amount of damage done to the boat's remains in almost 20 years.

'It's sort of like going into the Louvre (Museum in Paris) with a bulldozer,' said Ballard when describing the damage submersibles have caused to the remains of what was once the world's most luxurious liner.

'The greatest museum on earth is beneath the sea and we have the technology to go there. The question is, are we going there to appreciate this history or plunder it?' said Ballard.

Ballard is asking Congress to step in and legislate protection for the Titanic and other great shipwrecks. England has already agreed to certain restrictions on visits to the site and Ballard is hoping the U.S., France and Russia will also agree to protect the site.

'If we can't protect the Titanic, we can't protect anything. The Titanic is my soap box to talk about this larger issue about ancient history,' he said.

Ballard is hopeful that images can be beamed back from Titanic and other wrecks which can be used to educate a fascinated public without damaging the remains of the ships themselves.

Titanic was sunk on its maiden voyage from England to New York on April 14, 1912. At the time, the ship had the greatest technology and was considered by many to be 'unsinkable.' After striking an iceberg, the ship went down not far from Nova Scotia causing the loss of 1,523 lives.