Connecticut Explorer: "Don't Shut Down Deep Sea Drilling"

Explorer Dr. Robert Ballard says he hopes the Gulf oil spill doesn’t halt research into undersea oil exploration. Connecticut-based Ballard called the spill a tragedy but says the finest minds in the world are working to solve it.  WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

Ballard, who runs the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, is the discoverer of the Titanic, and one of the foremost experts in the country on undersea exploration. He’s been consulted on the spill and says he believes everything possible is being done to shut down the well.

“You’ve got all the talent on the planet trying to solve that problem. They’re in a new world, in a deep world – they’re learning a lot. I don’t think you could have more incentive to fix it than the incentive they’re experiencing.”

Ballard says he doesn’t want to see a long-term moratorium on deep sea drilling.

“It could be like a Three Mile Island that turned us away from nuclear power – we lost a generation. Are we going to turn our backs on deep sea oil exploration, which I think would be a mistake.”

But he adds the world must also take a longer term lesson from what’s happening in the Gulf.

“It shows the need for a Manhattan Project in getting off of fossil fuels, but that isn’t going to take place overnight. I can’t think of a more vivid reason not to want to move off fossil fuels than the one we’re seeing right now.”

Ballard was speaking at the launch of his own new undersea mission which will map previously unexplored regions of the Black Sea.

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.