What's in a name?

Although money can’t buy you happiness, there is little else it can’t purchase for you in this day and age. It seems as though nothing is sacred any more; nothing can escape the clutches of those with deep pockets. Perhaps that has always been the case, but it appears to be reaching new levels. There is no finer example of the power money possesses than an auction taking place this week  in Monaco, where the rights to name 10 new marine life species will be sold to the highest bidder.

The motive behind the auction is not in question, it is entirely honourable. The money raised will benefit marine conservation programmes associated with the long-term preservation of marine life species as well as other environment-related programmes. However, what is alarming is that individuals, companies and organisations are being given the opportunity to have their name, or a name of their choice, forever attributed to a new species. The species, which have been discovered this year off the coasts of the Bird’s Head Seascape in Indonesia by Conservation International, will be called whatever the highest bidder wants. They have already been given scientific names (genus and species), but the common names by which they will be known will be decided by the winning bidders.

The slogan for the auction, known as the Blue Auction, is ‘leave your mark on our blue planet’ and it is allowing wealthy folk to do just that, just not really in a very positive manner. The irony is more than likely accidental, but the fact remains that this is a sad sign of the times when 10 new species run the risk of being named anything ranging from Starbucks or Toyota to Birds Eye or Esso.

Imagine what a mess we’d be in if this kind of process was common practice. We might have the I Can’t Believe It’s Not butterfly, the Amazon.com rainforest, the Daily Mail snail, the great White Company shark, the Kentucky Fried chicken, the Moth-ercare, the Adidas sea bass, the three Nintendo-toed sloth and so on. It would be totally ridiculous.

Hopefully, the successful bidders in the Blue Auction will show some common sense and responsibility when naming their species. Whether they do or not is completely up to them. These new species are at the mercy of those with the big fat cheque books. The species themselves are unlikely to be bothered what we call them, but we shouldn’t let money make a mockery of a classification and naming process that has been pretty successful to date. We should leave the naming of new species entirely to scientists. It’s not something that money should play any part in.