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Case 15b :

Environmental Sustainability: Stewardship of Extraordinary Resources

Mark let Queenie into his flat first. He could not believe his luck! She was such an attractive girl. She walked around the small flat and stopped at the fish tank, then exclaimed Queenie in a flourish of excited giggling,

"What are those?! They are beautiful!"

Mark replied with a sly and satisfied smile,

"Those are zebrafish. I brought them home from the laboratory. Those have been genetically modified to have leopard spots. And those have been modified to glow fluorescent green. They are called GloFish. This other tank is "wild type" zebrafish I use for other breeding stock. I am trying to breed the strains to make zebrafish with glowing spots. I want to call them disco-ball fish".

He was certain that the tank full of glowing fish would be attractive to any women he could bring back to his small, shared, flat. It is hard to find dates in Hong Kong as a post-doctoral researcher in fish genetics… it is not as exciting as being an investment banker or working for a hedge fund.

Mark continued confidently, "The company with the patent for GloFish has made a lot of money. The researchers that made the leopard spotted zebra fish have also made money from their patent. I hope that I can make new types of aquarium fish on my own to make money on top of my university salary".

Queenie turned away from the fish tank and put her arms around Mark, saying coyly,

"A scientist and a business-man… I like it".

The next day, Mark tells Kai-Lau, Mark's fellow post-doctoral researcher, about his exciting date with Queenie. Unfortunately for Mark, he had forgotten to mention to Kai-Lau before that he had taken both strains of genetically modified zebrafish home to his private aquarium. He had also forgotten to mention before that he was trying to profit individually from his access to unique laboratory strains of genetically modified fish. Thus, Mark was surprised when Kai-Lau looked up from the microscope and announced coolly,

"Mark, you are a jerk and an idiot and a thief".

• Do you believe that Mark is doing anything wrong?
• What rules might Mark have violated by taking home the fish?
• What stipulations in the Convention on Biodiversity might Mark be violating when trying to produce "disco ball fish"?
• Mark did take resources from the laboratory to use in his own work, is Mark a thief?
   

Imagine that you are Kai-Lau:

• What do you do with the information that Mark gave you about taking the fish?
• Is he doing anything dangerous?
• What might be the consequences for sustainable biodiversity if Mark's ad-hoc breeding experiment with "disco-ball fish" goes awry?