Timeline of United States discoveries four days into the ship's maiden voyage, "Titanic" struck an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on April 15, 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. After nearly 74 years of being lost at sea on the bottom of the ocean floor, a joint Franco-American expedition led by American oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discovered the wreckage of the RMS "Titanic" two miles (3 km) beneath the waves of the North Atlantic on September 1, 1985. Ballard
Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) for which we share responsibility remain healthy, resilient and productive for our children and theirs." Sarah Chasis, Senior Attorney and Director, Ocean Initiative, New York of the Natural Resources Defense Council noted in a blog posting that with the initiative "the Mid-Atlantic jumps to being a regional player on the ocean protection scene, on par with ecosystem-wide efforts by bodies like the West Coast Governors' Agreement." Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean is a regional initiative by states in the Mid-Atlantic States region "to maintain and improve the health of our ocean and