With Kentucky bluegrass roots and a B.S. in Biology, Billy found a world with a blue sea too alluring to ignore. In 2005 with a backpack and a tent, he hopped on a Greyhound bus- thirty eight short hours later, he was standing on the side of US-1 in Stock Island. Wondering what he had one.

After a few days, Billy packed up the tent, rented a room and experienced two hurricanes in as many months. After experiencing the force of nature, and meeting people with personalities as powerful as the storms, Billy had found his new home. With a passion for science, a love of education, a need for informality and constant challenge, Billy found that being a guide and a captain was one of the few things that could keep his attention.

After living on a sailboat with his wife Jennifer, and soon after discovering they were pregnant with their first child, Billy, who had no significant construction experience, set out to build his growing family, a houseboat. During this period of construction Billy formed Honest Eco with a vision of operating the Sustainable Nature Tours he thought should be on offer in Key West. Starting with the purchase of Dolphin Watch, the Original Dolphin Watching trip in Key West, he quickly added another boat to operate guided Kayaking and snorkeling trips. By focusing on the wildlife and the guests’ experience Honest Eco found success that led to moving the family, now composed of four, to California where Billy went to work every day to build a custom designed plug in electric hybrid catamaran, named SQUID that is now operating in Key West.

Turner is the talent behind the original videos, music, and designs you’ll encounter with our small company. Though Turner was born in Tennesse, the confines of the state could not contain him and he was soon gone to explore the world. He has lived in Jamaica, France, Iceland, Czech Republic and even Key West, which is how we got to know him. Multilingual and passionate about wildlife are just a couple of the adjectives that we could use to describe him- the rest you can see in his work! Stay tuned on Facebook and Instagram and enjoy the Honest Eco nature videos and original scores, all thanks to Turner!

If the allure of a trip on the water wasn’t enough to entice you to call or write, then getting to have a chat with Jennifer should! In addition to being one of our yoga instructors for our Yoga at Sea trip, Jen handles all of the reservations and pre/post-trip customer service, and she’s great at it! Jen’s smile is so contagious that you can catch it over the phone and if you don’t hear her easy laugh, then it must have been your pocket that dialed- but don’t worry, she’ll call you back! Always happy to answer any question, give you an honest opinion on the weather, or to help you find your way to one of our boats, our quality of customer service is not contained to your time spent with one of our captains, it starts with Jen. In fact, Jen receives some of the best compliments we get and this is coming from guests who just experienced dolphins and kayak tours around mangrove islands! Jen does all of this and manages to see to the needs of her toddler, Anila, which might actually be considered easy when compared to managing her husband, Captain Billy… That’s right, we’ve got a husband and wife team aboard Honest Eco!

Kelice is from Virginia but had her sights set on the ocean from early on. She attended the University of North Carolina at Wimington, where in addition to scoring a house with the beach as her backyard, she earned her BSc in Biology with a minor in Environmental Science. Even more impressive than her beach house was her GPA, (which we won’t list so as not to shame the rest of us), but we will say it came with Cum Laude Distinction!

Kelcie has had experience in both marine research and marine education programs, in Key West and afield. Most recently she has lent her skills to two organizations we greatly respect and find inspiration from- Mote Marine and Reef Relief. We are fortunate to have Kelcie on board for our trips and for our SQUID Kids program!

Brady is from Baltimore Maryland, and attended the University of Michigan, (also known as the ivy league school of Michigan) where he played football all four years in his front yard with his roommates, and attended every school sanctioned Michigan home football game in the same period. In a feat that is nothing short of astounding, amidst Brady’s busy football schedule, he earned a BSc in Biology, specifically Coastal Ecology, which is one of his many attributes that makes him such a great member of the Honest Eco team.

Brady wound up in Key West when he learned about Reef Relief and the great work that they do in the Key West community, he was literally at a Michigan football game when this happened. After setting up a video interview and making the power move to wear a suit and tie for it, when most of us wear swim suits and flip flops, he was a shoe in for the Reef Relief position and he arrived to town shortly thereafter. We are forever indebted to Reef Relief for recruiting and getting this stellar person to move down!

Brady has helped Honest Eco to successfully implement many of the new additions that our guests love, like the free underwater photos, the highly trained crew, the always immaculately maintained SQUID or the fact that we actually have our hand screen printed t-shirts and hats in stock! He has earned his title Head Captain. He has the helm most days of the week and is a great resource for both our guests and our crew at Honest Eco.