Brady Bradshaw

Before beginning work as a Campaign Organizer with the nonprofit Oceana in August 2017, Brady founded and directed a nonprofit organization called Ocean Defense in Wilmington, NC. Brady now works for Oceana to protect the Pacific Coast from the expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling and to ban the sale and trade of shark fins in the United States.

In 2014, he partnered with Oceana and other local organizations to strategically defeat plans for seismic testing and offshore drilling on the Atlantic Coast. As a passionate waterman and environmental activist, Brady has spent much of his life in water sports, marine biology studies, and ocean conservation. He graduated from UNC Wilmington with Honors in Marine Biology while managing several campaigns with UNCW ECO, and went on to study for a short time on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Along his journey, Brady has drawn upon conversations with a diversity of coastal residents, an intimate athletic connection with the ocean, and years of ecological studies to form his philosophy about humanity’s relationship with the ocean. He believes that human health, community empowerment, and ocean health are inseparable. As a competitive free diver and body surfer, he knows that the power of experience in the ocean can motivate us to protect it at all costs.  Brady has also worked with Greenpeace Student Network and Actions team, Energy Action Coalition, Tar Sands Blockade, The Black Fish, Stop Titan Action Network, and many other groups and coalitions working to protect the climate and ocean. After flying over the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Brady made a vow: to eliminate the threat of the oil industry at sea so that life can thrive and recover in the absence of seismic airgun blasts and oil spills.

Photo by Courtney Preis