Researchers have developed a way to identify conservation hotspots in the world oceans. These are areas where overfishing is profitable enough to undermine conservation efforts.

Researchers created a risk index based on the discount rate and intrinsic population growth for fisheries. The discount rate refers to the value of fish from year to year. The intrinsic population growth rate is the difference between births and deaths in the area.

This will help scientists better understand the financial incentives to overfish in areas where fish population are already vulnerable.