Muscat: The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism (MHT) organised a workshop on Sunday focusing on ‘meteorites in the Sultanate of Oman and combating illicit their trade.’
Speaking at the workshop, Salem bin Mohammed al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism, said it is important to empower stakeholders, especially customs officers at land, air, and seaports (to stop illegal trafficking) and small and medium enterprises operating as tour operators.
Al Mahrouqi said, “It is very important to know the importance and existence of these meteorites as common people cannot differentiate between ordinary rocks in wadis or meteorites valued at millions of dollars.”
In the past, some rare lunar and Martian pieces (pieces of Mars) were stolen from the Sultanate at a time when monitoring capabilities and research were not efficient as they are today.
“But today concerned authorities, the Royal Oman Police, and other security agencies work together to preserve these possessions,” the minister said.
Professor Beda Hofmann, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences from Switzerland, and Professor Edwin Genus, head of the Department of Science at the Natural History Museum in Zurich, are part of the Omani-Swiss meteorite research project team who said for more than 23 years, the team has been able to document more than 7,340 meteorite samples.
The ministry seeks to monitor meteorite samples as soon as they enter the airspace in the Sultanate of Oman, through the installation of devices, the results of which were announced in October.
Engineer Hussein bin Ali al Ghafri, Director of the Heritage Department, said that the ministry is organizing awareness and introduction workshops in coordination with the authorities to combat illicit trade and possible smuggling routes at all ports.
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