NEW YORK, Jun 4 2015, CNS – The Turks and Caicos Islands Community College (TCICC) has won the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) annual Students Colloquium.
The TCICC won with its proposal for a Caribbean-wide festival to decrease and hopefully eliminate the marine predator, the voracious lionfish.
TCICC’s team comprising – Celianise Burnel, Carlencia Lightbourne, Shakiah Lewis and Daniela Caroll – argued that the initiative, if implemented, would involve a three -day festival held in Caribbean countries affected by the invasive lionfish, whose voracious appetite is wiping out fish stocks from Bermuda to Barbados in what scientists believe to be the worst marine invasion in history.
The CTO Students Colloquium, which is part of the activities for Caribbean Week, challenges students from different Caribbean and U.S. institutions to present creative ideas for viable and profitable sustainable tourism projects or businesses in the Caribbean.
TCICC defeated four-time champions Monroe College who came in second while the College of the Bahamas won third place. The University of Technology in Jamaic placed fourth.
“We had a very creative proposition and I think that it would be implemented in all Caribbean Islands. We had a brilliant idea. In the Turks and Caicos we survive off tourism and the fishing industry is a large one there too so since the lionfish destroy our fishing industry we say let’s use the lionfish and try to eradicate them,” Caroll told Caribbean News Service (CNS).
The students won 3 night/ 4 day all-inclusive stay at Coconut Beach Resort & Spa in St. Lucia plus five tickets on Delta Airlines.
