[meteorite-list] Some thoughts on find coords

From: James Baxter <jbaxter112_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 23:14:25 -0400
Message-ID: <1618575842.6119231347074065503.JavaMail.root_at_zmcs01l-pol-08.portal.webmd.com>

I think Rob's embargo period, which would address Doug Ross's and Mike Miller's concerns, is a great solution to this issue.

>From my very limited (n of 3) experience there are significant psychological issues involved in addition to scientific ones in the field. Sadly meteorite folk like everyone else fall into a bell shaped distribution of social skills and of ethical behavior. All of the established meteorite hunters I have seen in action are really skillful at educating landowners and establishing confidence and rapport with them. But now that we are able to get such great radar data from Marc et al., a large number of people get into the field pretty quickly and this may, and likely will, include a number of people on the other end of the bell curve. If only one or two coordinates are published I can envision hoards descending on the published spots possibly including some bad actors who will 'poison the well' and set up an atmosphere of distrust and resentment toward hunters. Even if all behave well a high concentration of people nosing around within a small area early on will likely be seen as a nuisance at best, threatenin
g at worst. If all the information hunters have to go on for the embargo period is the general strewnfield radar data, at least the hunters will be scattered more widely throughout the search area and there will be a lower likelihood of our endeavor getting a bad reputation among the local folks from the start. If the local community gets the impression that the hunters are respectful and are offering a benefit to them more land will be available for hunting. If, on the other hand, they get the impression we are disrespectful or a threat to their privacy and their property, then more properties are going to be off limits and far less material recovered.

Best,
Jim Baxter


----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert D. Matson" <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
To: "Doug Ross" <doug at dougross.net>, "Meteorite List List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Marc Fries" <chief_scientist at galacticanalytics.com>
Sent: Friday, September 7, 2012 3:35:00 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Some thoughts on find coords

Hi All,

I would concur with Doug Ross's and Mike Miller's take on the meteorite
coordinate publication problem, and would opine that the least-offending
solution is to embargo coordinates for some period of time to respect
the
efforts of hard-working meteorite hunters while still satisfying the
scientific community. In the (rare) case of a meteorite fall for which
radar data exists, the general search area and trend line are well known

--
at least to those who know how to download and interpret said data, or
have been willing to pay those who do. But even with such information in
hand, there are classical meteorite hunting skills that relatively few
people possess.
With the understanding that there can be significant "clustering" of
meteorites in a fall, I don't know that I would be particularly thrilled
if a tyro was shadowing me in the field based on coordinates of a
fresh find I had made a day or two earlier. Aside from the overall
"fairness" aspect of the situation, it is a guaranteed distraction to
hunting efficiency if you are constantly wondering whether you are
covering ground that someone else has already searched.
But perhaps more to the heart of the matter, there is really no
scientific urgency in making exact find coordinates public when the
radar returns for a fall can span over 20 square kilometers. If
anything, published coordinates can actually be a scientific hindrance,
because the overall search area will not be covered as thoroughly when
people choose to concentrate their efforts on where the latest find
happened to be made.
On a final note, I would like to think that the promise of embargoing
find coordinates for some period of time would be more conducive to
accurate reporting of those coordinates (though still no guarantee).
When people are pressured into reporting coordinates before they
are ready, they will fudge -- even independent of any find location
legal issue. If scientists want to maximize data accuracy and
completeness, they cannot ignore human psychology. Fairness and
proportionate compensation are just as relevant to meteorite hunting
as any other competitive human endeavor.
Good Hunting to All,
Rob
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Received on Fri 07 Sep 2012 11:14:25 PM PDT