The Titanic and Edmund Fitzgerald are both considered gravesites. Why only one is off limits

DarrenMuljo's grandfather, Ransom "Ray Cundy, was a watchmanaboardthe SS Edmund Fitzgerald when itwent downduring a Nov.10, 1975,storm on Lake Superior.

And it was his mother,Cheryl Rozman, who has since passed away, who helped pressurethe Ontariogovernment tomake thesite mostly off limits and preserve it as a grave for the 29lives lost.

"The families wanted to have it declared a gravesite," to protect it against commercialization with strict limitations for only "legitimate archeological, scientific or law enforcement purposes," said Muljo, who was five when he last saw his grandpa at the docks in Duluth, Minn.,in the summer of '75.

An amendment to theOntarioHeritage Act in 2006severely limitedaccess to the remains of the ship, which was immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot'shit songThe Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

But that's not the case for the resting site of the RMS Titanic,where researchers, explorersandtourists (for a hefty price) have made numerous trips raisingsome controversy over whether such visits to an area also deemed a gravesite are proper.

One of those tourist trips aboard the submersible Titan, pegged at around $250,000 US a person, is now the focus of attention after the seven-metre craft with five people on board was reported missing Sunday evening

Titan's tripto the remains of the British vessel in international waters off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is justone of several that have been made by craft operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

LISTEN| Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald:

Archives2:1129 die in the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald

A winter storm sends the U.S. freighter, and its entire crew, to the bottom of Lake Superior.

The Titanic hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912, during its maiden voyage.Of the more than 2,200 individuals on board, approximately 1,500 perished.

In 1986, the U.S. government passed the Titanic Memorial Act to regulate exploration and salvage activities of the ship.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), says the Titanicserves "as a maritime memorial for those individuals who lost their lives."

"The remains of many of these individuals were never recovered, and Titanic serves as their final resting place," NOAAsays on the its website.

But because it's in international waters, enforcing restrictionsand creating new legislation with more teethhasproved challenging.

LISTEN| From 1975: The Fitzgerald is lost:

U.S. and Canadian coast guards searching for submersible missing near Titanic

1 year ago

Duration 2:41

A rescue effort is underway off Newfoundland, after a submersible expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic went missing. U.S. officials say the search will continue through the night.

"The tourism industry around Titanic at this point is not regulated," said Philadelphia-based lawyer Craig A.Sopin, who is also a Titanic historian.

There are rules and regulations concerning visits to the interior of the ship and there used to be others concerning the exterior, he said.

But when lawsuits over rights to the Titanic allowed visits to the wreckage provided they just looked more tours started happening, Sopin said.

"They've actually been going on for about 20 years," he said. "There is a controversy as to whether people should be visiting."

Complaints have been raised by both family members and by survivors themselves, he said.

Following the sinking of the EdmundFitzgerald, a number of expeditions were made to the wreckage includingone in 1980helmed by Jean Michel Cousteau, son of the famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau.

WATCH |Tourist submersible missing:

But a three-day submarine expedition in July 1994particularlysparked the ire of the surviving family members after themarine explorer used pictures of the underwater remains of a crewmanin a 20th anniversary book and video.

"I can't believe he's doing this to us, said Cheryl Rozman at the time, as quoted by The Associated Press. "That is my dad's grave and it should be respected."

"You don't go digging up graves on land here, looking at bodies, taking pictures. There's laws against that and there should be laws protecting an underwater grave site."

Although Rozman had already started looking into ways to preserve the site,that same yearthe families alsocommissioned the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum to conduct one last expedition.

"Family members wanted something tangible, so they asked if we could organize a expedition down to cut the bell off," said Corey Adkins, a spokesman for the museum, based in Paradise, Mich."Andthat literally took two governments working together and making that happen."

A ceremony was conducted after the bell was retrieved, and is on display at the museum, where it is rung 29 times as part of a memorial service every year on Nov. 10.

"A lot of family members still do come and ring the bell in honour of their loved ones," Adkins said.

After that,Adkins says, there was a lot of pressure from the family members to make the site off limits, with Rozman along with Ruth Hudson, whose son Brucewas a deckhand on the Fitzgerald leading the charge topushOttawa toban expeditions to the wreck. The wreck is in Canadian waters.

Muljo said his mother would travel to Toronto and reach out to the provincial leadership to get the Ontario Heritage Act amended. That regulation was put into law in 2006, and anyonewishing to dive to the site or operate research equipment near it would requirea site-specific licence issued by the province.

"We are thankful that the site is protected from unauthorized visits, and we can now be at peace," Rozman and Hudson said in a statement issued by the government at the time.

Since then, Muljo says hehasn't heard of any authorizedexploration ofthe site.

"Itdoes give us comfort because you know we never want to see the site of the Fitzgeraldcommercialized It's still very sensitive tomany of the family members," he said.