Talking Turtles With Tourists: Evaluating the Relative Conservation Impacts of Different Types of Sea Turtle Education Programs at Jekyll Island, GA, USA.

This article evaluates the conservation impacts of two distinct field-based sea turtle education programs at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) on Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA: a low-interaction program (LIP) led by education guides with minimal direct contact, and a high-interaction program (HIP) led by sea turtle biologists featuring more intimate turtle encounters. Using pre- and post-program surveys, the study found that both program types similarly increased participants’ knowledge of sea turtles and intentions to engage in turtle advocacy behaviors, while having minimal effects on pro-turtle attitudes and specific turtle-friendly beach behaviors—likely due to already high baseline scores among participants. The findings suggest that wildlife tourism destinations can employ different educational delivery methods to achieve comparable conservation education outcomes, with considerations of program cost, feasibility, and audience size guiding implementation. The study also highlights that participants without prior exposure to sea turtles showed greater gains, indicating the value of targeting new audiences for conservation education.