Cornerstones of Marine Protection Might Actually be “Blue Spots”

A marine protection method described this week proposes spreading marine protection from areas where wildlife tourism already discourages activities that damage or degrade ecosystems, like fishing or mining.

A spatial framework that researchers have dubbed Blue Spots can accelerate marine conservation by concentrating efforts in areas where existing non-extractive economies—especially diving and wildlife tourism—already support biodiversity protection.

Aligning protection efforts with socioeconomic readiness can deliver measurable ecological and economic gains more rapidly than conventional conservation strategies, say researchers from the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas-IPN (CICIMAR), the  Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación, the Institute of the Americas, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. 

“Our findings show that many coastal communities are already aligned with conservation goals. Blue Spots provide a pathway to protect what is working today and amplify those successes,” said study lead author Eduardo León-Solórzano, a student at CICIMAR, located in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

The concept is described in the study “Blue Spots: A Novel Framework to Leverage Non-Extractive Economies for Ocean Conservation” appearing Nov. 27 in the journal Conservation Letters. It furthers work done in recent decades showing the compatibility of economic growth and marine protection through diving, snorkeling and similar tourism activities located where marine life thrives.

Although more than 8% of the global ocean is designated as a marine protected area (MPA), only about 3% is fully protected from extractive activities. Fully protected areas remain the most effective tool for restoring marine biodiversity, yet progress toward global targets—such as the goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030—has stalled due to social and economic barriers faced by coastal communities.

“By identifying areas where conservation and local economies already benefit one another, we can expand fully protected marine areas more efficiently and equitably,” said Scripps Oceanography marine ecologist Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, a study co-author.

The Blue Spots framework identifies coastal and marine areas where conditions already favor effective conservation, including:

• Established ecotourism operations such as diving centers
• Access and infrastructure that support non-extractive livelihoods
• Evidence of local governance and community inclusion
• Relatively low industrial fishing pressure

These criteria reflect the enabling conditions that helped drive the success of Cabo Pulmo National Park, one of the world’s most celebrated examples of community-led marine recovery. The study uses Cabo Pulmo as a benchmark for identifying similarly promising locations throughout Mexico.

Using national-scale spatial modeling across Mexico’s 392,000 square-kilometer (151,000 square mile) territorial sea, researchers identified 300 Blue Spots and 30 high-priority Blue Spots, defined as the top 10% most feasible and impactful for near-term protection.

The 300 areas represent only 9% of Mexico’s territorial waters but contain 23% of critical marine and coastal habitats, underscoring their ecological significance.

A bio-economic model developed by the team shows that protecting the 30 highest-priority Blue Spots could increase diving tourism revenues by more than 70% over a decade, while avoiding losses expected under business-as-usual degradation. When expanded to all Blue Spots, national diving tourism revenue could nearly double.

In contrast, the business-as-usual scenario leads to a projected 10% decline in diving tourism value over the same period due to cumulative environmental degradation.

The study argues that Blue Spots offer a pragmatic and socially grounded pathway to expand fully protected MPAs without requiring communities to transition away from traditional livelihoods. Instead, they leverage existing economic incentives and local stewardship.

Rather than replacing ecological prioritization or Marine Spatial Planning, Blue Spots complement these tools by integrating socioeconomic feasibility directly into conservation design. The authors emphasize that the framework is adaptable and can be aligned with local governance systems and context-specific data.

Study authors also include Fabio Favoretto, a former Scripps Oceanography postdoctoral scholar.