Meet Courtney Platt

Courtney is one of three co-founders of Lionfish University, and is on a mission to save and restore Grand Cayman’s deeply depleted reef fish population from continuing decline. With 42 years experience in the dive industry and underwater photography there, he has a uniquely compelling presentation with an effective call to action to deliver to 85k residents but needs your help to free him to pursue this project full-time.

An U/W photographer since 1976, his talk is image rich. Previous presentations have proven the effectiveness of his call to action that brings the change in behavior required at this critical time for our reefs. For this new initiative, that call to action is as simple as this: “If you can afford to eat anything else, please CHOOSE to eat anything else”. Audiences are taking it to heart! He cannot continue while required to earn a living at photography, his occupation since 1988, including 8 assignments for National Geographic Mag. With your help he’ll be able to chase audiences instead of photo clients. His target audiences include at least 15 schools, 300+ churches, numerous adult groups, Government and several news media outlets. This 18 min. TEDx talk in 2015 is a sample of his presentation, having affected several changes in regulations since.

Changing behavior and regulations will mean more sustainably renewable food for those in need, a strategic food reserve for the island and a greatly enhanced diving experience and tourism attraction. His informative, image rich educational presentation describes the severity of depletion during recent decades, extreme value of restoration and offers each resident the opportunity to become part of the solution. Please donate (or sponsor) any amount that you can to this worthy cause. It may well be the best thing you’ve done all year!