Luc Longley: Bull, Bidder, Science Winner

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 8, 2009 3:20PM

Former Chicago Bull Luc Longley has a few NBA championship rings and therefore probably has a few thousand dollars lying around. But instead of buying a car or a bigger house, Longley has done something a tad more unusual: he bought the naming rights to a new shrimp discovered off the coast of his native Australia. University of Melbourne doctoral student Anna McCallum discovered the new shrimp but instead of naming it herself, decided to auction off the naming rights with proceeds going to the Australian Marine Conservation Society. Longley made the winning bid of $2,900 and named the shrimp Lebbeus clarehanna after his daughter, Clare Hanna Longley, in honor of her 15th birthday. According to The Scientist:

But Longley was no stranger to supporting marine conservation in his native country, having helped halt the construction of a resort near the Ningaloo Reef, a vast coral ecosystem off the west coast of Australia. “That gave me a taste for it,” Longley says. Coincidentally, Longley is from the Western Australia city of Freemantle, which is not far from where McCallum found the shrimp.

Longley says that he was as excited to name the new shrimp species as he was to help the AMCS protect the marine environment. “You get to name a species and you get to donate to charity at the same time,” he says. “It’s a fabulous concept.”

Said McCallum of her discovery, "It was a total surprise that a basketballer would be interested in this little deep-sea shrimp." [via Chicago Breaking Sports]