Running head: REFLECTION PAPER DAY 6 1

Reflection Paper: Day 6

Marteca Soler-Bodden

International College of the Cayman Islands

Seminar: Business and Society

18 November 2017

Ms. Melisa Bent-Hamilton

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Today, November 18th, 2017, my business and society class spent the day on Little

Cayman. As we arrived, we went straight to Pirates Point Resort for breakfast. Shortly after, we

went to the Central Caribbean Maritime Institution and met with Mr. Jon Clamp who is the

Director of Operations and Field Station Manager. He has also previously worked for the

Cayman Islands Department of Environment and for the Wildlife Conservation Society in Belize

managing the Glovers Reef Research Station and World Heritage Site. Mr. Clamp was the very

first research station manager at CCMI (Meet the Team, 2017). He was part of the founding

team of the Little Cayman Research Centre, designing and developing the aquatic systems for

the facility. He is familiar with all aspects of station life and is responsible for the daily running

of the station, overseeing all of the station logistics (Meet the Team, 2017).

CCMI was Caymans very first official non-profit organisation, which started research in

1998 and opened its facilities in 2005. They have no funding from governed at all. Most of their

funding comes from earned income, which is counts for 50% of their total income, and school

project funding, which counts for another 50% of their total funding (Clamp, 2017). They are

also sponsored by the United Kingdom. They report to all of their sponsors and keep them

updated with their projects to let them know that their funds are being spent properly. Their

classroom facility can hold about 18-20 students and they offer internships about every three

months (Clamp, 2017). They also provide underwater lessons. The staff members at CCMI range

from about 11 to 13 members usually. Their usual staff consists of about 8 people and the rest is

made up by interns (Clamp, 2017).

Mr. Clamp also gave us a little background information about the corals and how

important they are to the islands. They study them regularly and have noticed that they have had

increased coral bleaching over the past few years. They have also noticed that the seaweed
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covering the corals contributes to their declining health, so they have been trying to find fish that

will eat the seaweed and prevent this from happening (Clamp, 2017).

The information that we learned at CCMI relates to business and society because as a

non-profit organization, they depend on the funding of members of society for many things.

Additionally, a lot of the environmental issues that CCMI researches about are caused by the

actions of members of society, so it is important for the institute to understand this. As stated in

the text:

Humanity has entered a new geological era, called the Anthropocene (the period

in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the

environment). Since the industrial revolution, humans have become a powerful

force, altering the face of the planet and rivalling the forces of nature herself

glaciers, volcanoes, asteroids, and earthquakes in impact. (Lawrence & Weber,

2017, p. 185).

Following our tour of CCMI, Ms. Susan, who is the owner of Pirates Point Resort, took

us on a tour around the island. We visited the Museum, various popular nature reserves, and their

heritage house. We ended the day watching the Pirates week parade and with dinner. I enjoyed

my visit to Little Cayman and plan to re-visit Pirates Point sometime in the future.
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References

Clamp, J. (2017). CCMI Tour.

Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2017). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy

(15th ed.).

Meet the Team (2017). In CCMI - About Us. Retrieved from https://reefresearch.org/who-we-

are/about-us/meet-the-team/staff/