Scuba diving boosts conservation - and brings in billions

Scuba diving does more than open a window onto coral gardens and kelp forests. According to the first comprehensive tally of its global economic footprint, the pastime injects between $8.5 billion and $20.4 billion into the world economy each year. It also supports up to 124,000 jobs across 170 countries.

The study gives ocean advocates a new set of hard numbers to argue that healthy seas are not just a moral imperative – they are a lucrative asset.

The new analysis builds on 2021 work that pegged Mexico’s dive tourism at roughly $725 million a year – nearly as much as the entire fishing industry.

Dive data goes global

Backed by the National Geographic Society and endorsed by the United Nations Ocean Decade, marine biologist Octavio Aburto-Oropeza of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography created the Atlas Aquatica project to discover whether similar economic clout exists at the global scale.

The team compiled a database of more than 11,500 dive operators using Google Maps listings and PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) records, then cross-checked entries with local experts. An online survey drew 425 responses from businesses in 81 countries.

Economist Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor from Simon Fraser University translated those answers into spending estimates: direct outlays on courses, boat charters, and gear rentals, plus indirect spending on hotels, meals, and transportation by the world’s nine to fourteen million recreational divers.

Dive tourism drives billions

The numbers surprised even seasoned researchers. Direct expenditures came in between $900 million and $3.2 billion a year.

Add in ancillary spending, and the total swells to a figure of $8.5 billion to $20.4 billion. Eighty percent of dive-shop employees are local residents, a ratio that few mass-tourism sectors match.

“Scuba diving is pretty unique because it makes you spend time underwater,” said Fabio Favoretto, the Atlas Aquatica coordinator and a Scripps postdoctoral fellow.

“You can sail or surf above a dead ocean, but scuba divers notice if there are no fish – it’s really an activity that is dependent on the health of the system. That’s a positive for conservation because it makes divers allies.”

Divers flock to protected waters

Roughly 70 percent of all marine dives happen inside marine protected areas (MPAs), a finding that aligns with earlier research showing that operators and clients will pay a premium for richer wildlife encounters.

Prior studies suggest that expanding MPAs could further boost revenue by attracting more visitors willing to pay higher fees for healthier reefs, seagrass meadows, and pelagic drop-offs.

“We show that diving generates a lot of income, and it does this without degrading the environment like extractive industries such as fishing or mining,” Aburto-Oropeza said.

“We hope that showing the scale of the economic impact from this activity will encourage policies that invest in diving by increasing marine protections.”

A workforce watching reefs decline

Still, money alone cannot shield ecosystems. Most surveyed operators reported noticeable environmental degradation at their sites over the past decade.

That frontline perspective makes the sector a potential early-warning system for policymakers, provided governments invite dive professionals to the table.

The authors call for standardized ecological monitoring protocols across the industry and for formal seats for operators in marine management bodies.

Eco-friendly tourism works

Dive tourism exemplifies what scholars call the “blue economy,” a vision in which coastal communities prosper by stewarding, not exploiting, marine resources.

“Unlike mass tourism operations that can harm local communities and marine environments, dive tourism, when managed well, can be economically viable, socially equitable, and environmentally sustainable,” said Anna Schuhbauer, the study’s lead author and a fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia.

Because divers fly in small groups, stay longer, and spend heavily on local services, the money sticks close to home. Their physical footprint – anchored moorings, low-speed boats, tanks that are refilled rather than discarded – remains comparatively light.

Giving divers a voice

Despite their economic heft, dive operators are often fragmented into tiny businesses with little say in coastal zoning or fisheries regulation. Atlas Aquatica aims to change that by helping shops form cooperatives.

Pilot cooperatives in Mexico and Italy are already pooling funds for reef restoration, lobbying for stricter fishing limits inside MPAs, and negotiating better safety and sustainability standards.

The study recommends that governments recognize such groups as official stakeholders, giving them standing in decision-making processes that shape the underwater landscapes on which their livelihoods depend.

Profits support protection

For decades conservationists have argued that protecting biodiversity can pay for itself. By attaching dollar values to bubbles, buoyancy, and fin kicks, the new report turns that slogan into measurable evidence.

Moreover, scuba divers’ preference for MPAs is supported by data showing that about 70 percent of all marine dives currently occur within MPAs.

Policymakers weighing the short-term gains of mining or unregulated fishing against the steady flow of dive tourism dollars now have a clearer ledger.

Scuba diving’s future outlook

The researchers acknowledge gaps – their operator list, though vast, is not exhaustive; informal or unlicensed outfits are harder to track; and the pandemic temporarily suppressed travel numbers used in the analysis.

Even so, the conservative tone of their models suggests that the true economic contribution may be higher. Future studies will refine regional estimates, examine carbon footprints, and test whether higher protection leads directly to higher earnings over time.

For now, the takeaway is straightforward: oceans brimming with life are a magnet for recreational divers, and divers, in turn, pump billions into coastal economies without extracting a single fish.

Recognizing that virtuous cycle could help steer global recovery funds, tourism strategies, and climate-finance projects toward smarter policies. These would support colorful reefs and dense kelp forests – a win for local jobs, national coffers, and, above all, the sea itself..

The study is published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability.

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