Brad Nahill started SEE Turtles in 2008 with a simple idea: pay fishers to bring tourists to watch hatchlings instead of paying them to ignore the animals. Twenty-five years later, that idea has saved 20 million turtle hatchlings, pulled half a million pounds of plastic from beaches, and moved $1 million into local communities. During his WildLifeBuzz AMA, he talked about what actually changed in conservation over that time, and what still needs to change.

The real shift he's seen isn't in turtle biology. It's in who conservationists listen to.

Communities Stopped Being the Enemy

When Luiza Lima asked what gives Brad hope after 25 years, he didn't talk about turtle population numbers. He talked about people.

"The biggest change I have seen in the field that gives me hope is how the conservation community has finally started embracing working with local communities instead of seeing them as the enemy. There are still examples of colonial conservation but overall, the involvement of coastal communities, fishers, and others has grown a lot in the 25 years I have been doing this work."

That last part matters. Fishers in Mexico and Costa Rica didn't need lectures on turtle biology. They needed income. They didn't want to catch sea turtles by accident. When conservationists treated them as problems to solve, nothing changed. When conservationists treated them as partners, everything changed.

Brad credits his mentor, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, with seeing this first.

"The idea for SEE Turtles came from my good friend and mentor, the late Dr. Wallace J. Nichols. He saw in Mexico how fishers wanted to avoid catching turtles and benefit from tourism so he conceived of SEE Turtles as a way to help these communities bring travelers to their region. I had seen something similar in Costa Rica and we worked together to flesh out the idea and raise the funds to start the program."

This isn't how conservation used to work. For decades, it was researchers, governments, and nonprofits making decisions about land and wildlife. Local people got told what they could and couldn't do. It failed repeatedly because you can't protect anything against the people who live there.

You Don't Need a Biology Degree

Aima Batool asked what skills young conservationists should actually have. Brad Nahill's answer was refreshing because it had nothing to do with turtle taxonomy.

"I think it is really valuable for young conservationists to build their skills across a variety of areas, not just the biology or ecology of wildlife, but also in marketing (graphic design, social media), public speaking, fundraising, and advocacy. The more skills you can bring to a project, the more you can accomplish."

This cuts against every biology student's assumption. You think you need to know everything about sea turtles. You don't. You need to know how to tell people why they should care. How to design a social media post that gets clicks. How to write a grant that doesn't bore a funder to death. How to stand in front of a fisherman and explain why your idea works for him, not just for the turtles.

The best conservationists aren't the best scientists. They're the ones who can move money, change minds, and build coalitions.

The Climate Problem You Can Actually Do Something About

Ugwuanyi Collins Chibuikem asked Brad about the biggest threats to sea turtles. He expected a long list. He got two.

"I think the biggest challenges facing turtle conservation are climate change and plastic pollution. Both are growing problems that can't be solved on the local level like illegal hunting, fisheries issues, etc. Like many other species, sea turtles are deeply impacted by a changing climate and transitioning away from fossil fuels is the only way to change that."

Then Brad did something most conservationists don't. He gave actual advice.

Start local. Look for fossil fuel projects in your region and work to stop them. Get local governments to invest in clean energy. This isn't a distant, abstract problem anymore. It's in front of you. The action available to you is real.

That's the difference between hopelessness and work.

Making Sure Tourism Actually Helps

When Ezugwu Emmanuella Chidinma asked how SEE Turtles ensures ecotourism helps turtles rather than just tourists, Brad described the unglamorous work behind the scenes.

"We find the best way to ensure that tourism reduces its impact on the turtles is by choosing our local partners carefully," Brad explained. "By doing due diligence with the local conservation partners and tour operators, we can make sure that their policies and objectives align with ours. We have a set of criteria for which projects we will work with as well as best practices for turtle tourism that we align our partners with."

This is how sustainable tourism works in practice. You don't just show up with cameras. You vet every partner against a checklist. You align incentives. You build relationships that last decades, not seasons.

Fundraising During Crisis: Diversification Saves Organizations

When Palvi Choudhary asked about fundraising strategies, Brad shared something many nonprofits struggle with.

"The biggest challenge we faced early on was building a track record that brought in new donations and travelers to sustain the work over the long-term," Brad said. "We used those funds to build our following on email and social media so that we had an audience to raise funds from and find people to take our trips."

His breakthrough wasn't one funding source. It was many. "Our fundraising strategy of raising funds from diverse sources allowed us to avoid having to close up when one kind of funding stopped. For example, during the pandemic, we didn't have any trips to raise funds but our business and individual supporters kept us going. During the Great Recession, we were able to keep our tours going to keep money flowing."

Most nonprofits fail because they lean too hard on one revenue stream. Individual donors, corporate partnerships, trip revenue, grants. Spread the risk.

What Lessons Apply Everywhere

When Hira Noor Khalil asked what other conservation efforts could learn from sea turtle work, Brad pointed to two things that matter across species and geographies.

"I think the two biggest things that other conservation efforts can learn from the sea turtle community are cooperation across countries, regions, and within countries as well as finding ways to work with and involve local communities," Brad said. "One of the reasons that sea turtle populations are rebounding is how the community has worked together to study and share information across their ranges which can be entire ocean basins. When groups work together to address threats instead of competing, the animals benefit."

This is the opposite of conservation silos. Sea turtles migrate across oceans. A hatchling protected in Costa Rica might end up off the coast of Africa. That means researchers, governments, and communities on different continents have to share data, coordinate policy, and trust each other.

The Work Continues

The AMA revealed something important: 25 years into sea turtle conservation, Brad still sees massive opportunity for change. Climate action moves slowly. Plastic pollution keeps growing. Communities keep getting left out of decisions that affect them.

But he also sees something else: a generation of young conservationists willing to ask hard questions and do the work differently.

The full conversation is worth reading. Head to WildLifeBuzz AMA to see the complete thread and join the community.

Learn more:

SEE Turtles: www.seeturtles.org

Sea Turtle Week: www.seaturtleweek.com

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