Explorer and scientist Robert Ballard is best known for locating the ocean liner Titanic 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic in 1985. He is also responsible for finding PT 109 and the WWII German battleship Bismarck. He recently testified before the Senate on ocean exploration. "It was one of the major recommendations of the president's commission [on ocean policy]," he said. Ballard will be returning to the Titanic this summer, but he will be guest speaker on May 12 at a luncheon to benefit Pittsburgh Voyager. For tickets call 412-261-6344.

Q. Did you see skeletons anywhere on the Titanic?

A. Well, there are inside, but we haven't gone into where they would be -- in the engine room and places. We are confident there are people [bodies] inside. We didn't penetrate deep enough. When a human body falls to the ocean floor, it's eaten. Then the bones are exposed. One of the unique things about the deep sea is it's under saturated calcium carbonate and the bones dissolve. What's left behind are pairs of shoes where the bodies landed. The shoes are left because the animals don't eat leather. It's all sort of very poignant. In shallow water, when we worked on two ships from the war of 1812 in Lake Ontario, there are skeletons. It's the chemistry of the ocean. Shallow water does not dissolve bones.

Q. How did finding the Titanic affect you?

A. It hit me during the expedition. I did not expect the Titanic to speak to me. It was a piece of rust on the bottom of the ocean. It was more a technical challenge. But it spoke, and that was kind of surprising. But it will be interesting when I go back down this summer.

Q. As an explorer are you interested in finding Atlantis?

A. If it existed. I'm pretty confident it didn't. I mean Atlantis may have been a culture that vanished and it was probably on an island. You can't get rid of continents. Continents are too light. They float. Continents are full of light rock, granite. Remember the interior of the Earth is gooey, and the plates rest on the interior of the Earth. They float like objects in a bathtub.

Q. As a marine scientist, what are your thoughts on the Bermuda Triangle?

A. Same. Isn't it interesting that no one has died in it recently. You know why? -- radar, navigation, GPS. People don't get lost. Basically, the Bermuda Triangle is an area that is very dangerous for novices. Now even a novice can't get lost.

Q. You've had some close calls -- what was the worst and what goes through your mind?

A. Well the worst was probably when we crashed in 20,000 feet in the Caymen trough and started flooding our flotation. It was six hours before we knew we were going to make it. So for six hours you were wondering if you were going to die. It was interesting because you sort of said, so this is it. This is how it's going to end and these are the people I'm going to be with. I'd rather be with my family. There was nothing you could do. If the problem got as bad as we thought it could get, we had no chance.

Q. Do you think discovering chemosynthesis, the idea that life doesn't need the sun to exist, was your biggest contribution to science?

A. Absolutely. The Titanic we knew existed; this we didn't know. It completely changed our concepts of how life was created on Earth. It's completely changed our prospecting tools on finding life elsewhere. It's guiding our exploration to Mars and guiding our exploration to the Jupiter's moon Europa, where we think there's an ocean. It gave us a Rosetta stone. It gave us a new way of looking at life and that's pretty important. But that's gotten lost to a rusty old ship.

Q. You have a strong commitment to environmental education

A. The Earth is tiny and we are mucking it up. The ocean is in deep doo-doo. Read our commission report at www.oceancommission.gov.

Q. Do you live on a houseboat?

A. No I live on a marsh, looking out at wetlands. I prefer the wetlands to the ocean. I see the ocean enough as it is.