KELLY: Which - I suppose, as a non-scientist, I have to ask, why? What would be the great loss to humanity if the pupfish of Devils Hole were no more?

KOLBERT: Well, I quote a biologist named Phil Pister, who was instrumental in saving the Devils Hole pupfish and other very, very endangered fish. And people would always ask him, you know, when he was devoting his life to this task, “What good are pupfish?” And his response, which I think bears repeating, was always, “What good are you?”

from an interview on NPR