Scuba diving, as we all know, is a popular endeavour around the world, with a potential for advancing ocean conservation that has been significantly underutilised in recent decades. But, by continuing to ignore just how impactful it could be as a sector, researchers warn that we’re overlooking as much as $2bn in additional income for a global economy, each year.

While around 33 million dives take place every year, only 15% of dive sites are fully protected from fishing and other destructive activities. But, according to new research, granting these dive spots – which constitute less than 1% of the entire ocean – further protections can unlock scuba diving’s potential as an economic engine, while making them more attractive ecosystems for a larger amount of species.

It’s the win-win we’ve all been looking for.

Conducted by the team at National Geographic Pristine Seas – part of the global National Geographic Society non-profit, – research indicates that Egypt, Thailand, and the U.S. host the most scuba dives (close to 3 million each every year) while Indonesia, Egypt, and Australia host the most dives in fully or highly protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

It finds that safeguarding recreational dive hotspots around the globe would deliver a host of benefits to tourists, local communities and marine life, while the Philippines, United States and Indonesia, which host the largest number of dives in unprotected waters, would benefit most from designating sanctuaries in popular diving spots.

Most notably, the study finds that more fully protected dive sites would generate $2 billion in additional income globally, most of which would come from user fees paid by divers directly to local communities. As a result, better protecting the areas frequented by scuba divers could not only help marine life bounce back, but also generate a new source of income for coastal economies. The Global South — host to some 62% of recreational dives — is poised to gain the most.

“If you protect a marine area, more recreational divers will show up  — and they’ll pay more for the privilege of seeing sensational underwater life,” said Reniel Cabral, a senior lecturer at James Cook University and the study’s lead author. “Communities and businesses are leaving money on the table by overlooking the benefits of marine sanctuaries.”

The study, Marine protected areas for dive tourism, which appeared in Scientific Reports today, estimates that, as a result of expanded protections, recreational scuba divers would have more and bigger marine life to marvel at.

A growing body of research shows that fully protected areas can help restore fish populations by 500% on average, yield bigger fish over time and help replenish fishing grounds around the MPAs because of the spillover of marine life.

Furthermore, harnessing dive tourism could jumpstart an economic engine for coastal economies, particularly in the Global South. What’s more, the billions in tourism profits could quickly offset the cost of creating and maintaining Marine Protected Areas in a region with the highest marine biodiversity in the world, the authors found.

“Bottom line: Ocean protection benefits marine life, coastal communities and businesses,” remarked Enric Sala, founder of National Geographic Pristine Seas. “Protecting diving sites from fishing and other damaging activities can generate new streams of income and benefit more people. It’s increasingly clear that efforts to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 are even more beneficial than we thought.”

“The moment a diver comes face-to-face with the ocean’s vast beauty, they understand the importance and urgency of protecting it,” said Drew Richardson, president & CEO of PADI – the world’s largest scuba diving organisation, whose 6,600 dive centres and resorts in over 180 countries provided data sets for the study. “By safeguarding dive sites with more marine protected areas, we can reinvigorate the diver experience and regenerate hope for the ocean. The more people that are inspired to explore the ocean, the more torchbearers we will have to further advocate for safeguarding its future.”

To arrive at their conclusions, researchers assembled a database of dive shops, dive sites and prices from thousands of locations worldwide to estimate the number of dives annually, the extent to which protection would increase biomass and biodiversity in an area, and divers’ willingness to pay access fees for diving in a MPA. They found that 67% of all dive sites are located within the boundaries of MPAs — although only 15% are located within highly or fully protected areas. They then determined that enforcing highly and fully protected MPAs within existing recreational diving locations would increase the demand for diving and the number of dives by 32% (or 10.5 million more dives per year) and dive industry revenue by $616 million annually.

The authors found that the consumer surplus — the measure of what someone is willing to pay for a scuba diving experience versus what the actual cost is — is $2.7 billion per year. In other words, divers would willingly pay more for the experience, driving up the profitability of the sector.

“In Mexico alone, the diving industry generates annual revenues comparable to the country’s entire fisheries sector, making marine conservation not just an environmental necessity, but an economic imperative,” said Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and co-author of the study. “From the vibrant reefs of Cozumel to the fully protected marine reserve of Cabo Pulmo, this industry welcomes up to 1.7 million divers each year. Strengthening conservation efforts and fostering small-scale, community-led ecotourism will not only elevate the diving experience, but will also ensure the long-term sustainability of marine tourism worldwide.”

There are many examples from around the world that show that MPAs produce spillover of fishes and invertebrates that increases the catches of species from small and sedentary (lobsters, scallops) to large and migratory (tuna). A recent study shows that fishing catch per unit effort increases on average 12-18% near the boundaries of large fully protected MPAs.

The research calculated that the operation of additional MPAs (including enforcement) that total 1% of the global ocean would cost up to $1.2 billion and that scuba divers’ access fees could generate more than enough revenue to cover those costs. In contrast, in 2020, countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other large fishing nations spent over $10 billion of public money on supporting their fisheries.

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