Meteorite Hunting In The USA

There is a debate going on in the USA right now over whether or not it’s ok to hunt meteorites on federal land anymore. Though this is not new information, it seems the increased popularity of meteorites through greater publicity and most probably a greater number of inquiries to the BLM (BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT) about meteorite hunting by potential new meteorite hunters, the BLM have recently posted a policy on their website which states that meteorites are illegal to collect on federal land. http://www.blm.gov/or/programs/minerals/noncollectables.php The current interpretation of the law excludes the public and alienates professionals who’ve been hunting and providing meteorites to both the private collectors and public institutions and museums for decades.

Right now this is big news in the meteorite world. In one camp you have purists who believe that meteorites should only be collected by authorized scientific personnel or those trained in the proper recovery of meteorites and the vital scientific data. In the other camp you have the meteorite hunters who’ve spent literally decades hunting meteorites and providing valuable meteorite data to the scientific community not to mention a large portion of all meteorites in institutional collections throughout the world were provided by the private sector by very professional and accomplished meteorite hunters. Then you have a mix of other differing opinions across the board from the rest of the meteorite world. There are scientists and meteorite hunters in both camps, and there are dividing lines between competing philosophies.

Some of those in the scientific community and the federal government would have you believe that the public has no right to collect meteorites on federal land at all, and some support the trampling of the rights of the the qualified public to hunt for meteorites on that land citing the 1906 Antiquities Act or rather an interpretation thereof.

What’s important to understand is this debate has been going on for a very long time, but it’s just now becoming more public because of the increased awareness of meteorites through television shows and media attention. 6 months ago you would have never contacted me for a quote, now journalists contact those in the meteorite world for quotes much more often.

To be fair, the scientific community has created the best resource for knowledge on meteorites ever conceived by humans, but we can never forget that that knowledge came from multiple sources, sources that include the private sector meteorite hunters as well as trained scientists. Underfunded educational institutions typically cannot afford to sponsor large expeditions to hunt meteorites throughout the world or the USA for that matter, but the private sector usually has more freedoms and funding to launch meteorite hunting expeditions throughout the USA and worldwide.

Another very important group directly related to meteorite hunting is the private collectors, museums, and universities throughout the world who’ve benefited from having access to meteorite material for study and collection. If it were not for the private sector meteorite hunting professionals there would be almost no meteorite material for the “public” to collect at all, nor would many universities and institutions have such large meteorite collections.

Every human being on the planet should have a right to collect meteorites. Meteorites potentially have within them the knowledge of everything, and everyone should be able to appreciate and wonder in that.