An assessment of Ernest Shackleton's lost ship, the wreck of the Endurance in the Antarctic, recommends it is best preserved if left where it is.
The shipwreck is 3,000 metres below sea level and in a "very stable" condition, the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) says.
As Press Association reports, the team has said the risk of people travelling to the site to steal from it is “relatively minor”.
A photo of the stern of Endurance discovered by a British-led expedition last year in 2022 Photo: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and National Geographic
Endurance became stuck in ice and sank in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica in 1915, and was lost until it was located by a British-led expedition last year.
The identification was just months after the 100th anniversary of Shackleton's death.
The Co Kildare explorer had said it was "the worst portion of the worst sea in the world".
Camilla Nichol, of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), told the PA news agency: "Endurance is best preserved and kept on the seafloor where it is at the moment.
"It's stable, it's preserved, it's in great shape considering its demise in 1915” Nichol said.
"The recommendation is absolutely to leave it in situ and intact, no retrieving of the ship's bell or anything like that. Keep it whole so it can tell its story coherently."
Read the PA report on RTE News here
