Educating public is key says prominent collector

Byron Blessed, 36, of Whitby, is one of the most prominent fossil collectors on the Yorkshire coast.

Like many geology experts, while he has called for greater public education about how to collect fossils in the proper way, he has warned against any sort of crackdown against rogue collectors as it could have an impact on what is a crucial aspect of the science.

“It is about educating the public about the right ways of fossil collecting,” said Mr Blessed, who has a degree in geology from Cardiff University and a Masters in palaeontology from Bristol University and has been collecting since the age of five.

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“These people (causing the problems) are the people that don’t know what they are doing properly.

“What they don’t realise is that the best fossils are to be found on the beach. The selling of fossils has been going on for generations in Whitby.

“The internet has probably made it a more accessible market.

“It has opened it up so that everybody is claiming to be a collector when in fact they are not.

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“It makes the people who do it legitimately not look very good.

“It is very much a family- orientated hobby.

“This is not something that I believe should be stopped in any way, but it needs to be done correctly.

“Stopping this is so difficult. The authorities are not able to police this, really.

People can think that there are fossils there and they don’t need anybody to tell them what to do.

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“They think of the quick buck but that doesn’t always work out properly in practice.

“It is a very grey area, legally.

“I believe that providing more information boards would be a good way around this issue.

“But if trying to stop this activity has an effect on legitimate collectors, then that would be a great shame – particularly for the children. Collecting fossils is how I started.”