Marine ecosystems are complex socio-ecological systems where sustainable solutions can be best gained by satisfying both conservation and socioeconomic demands. Concretely, the Mediterranean Sea is facing a huge demand of resources and marine activities while hosting abundant and unique biodiversity. It is considered an important elasmobranch hotspot where seventy-two elasmobranch species are present in the basin. Despite the recognised importance of elasmobranchs as umbrella species, to date only a small number of marine protected areas have been designated towards their protection. The paucity of spatially-explicit abundance data on elasmobranchs often precludes the designation of these areas to protect these marine predators. Here, we aimed to identify marine areas to protect elasmobranch species by means of a systematic spatial planning approach. We first estimated the spatial distribution of five elasmobranch species (three sharks and two rays) in the western Mediterranean Sea and then applied Marxan decision support tools to find priority marine conservation areas. We found that the five elasmobranchs are distributed in coastal and slope areas of the southern waters of the study area while in the northern region they are abundant in the continental slope and towards offshore waters. Conservation priority areas were identified in the southern part of the western Mediterranean. Adding more complex cost layers and zoning to the analysis did not alter conservation priority areas, confirming such areas are highly consistent and highly important for elasmobranch protection. The marine conservation priority areas identified here can contribute to designate a proactive area-based protection strategy towards elasmobranch conservation, related species and the habitats that they depend in the western Mediterranean Sea.

海洋生态系统是复杂的社会生态系统，通过满足保护和社会经济需求，可以最好地获得可持续解决方案。具体而言，在拥有丰富而独特的生物多样性的同时，地中海面临着对资源和海洋活动的巨大需求。它被认为是重要的弹性分支热点，盆地中有72种弹性分支物种。尽管人们认识到弹枝作为伞形物种非常重要，但迄今为止，仅指定了少量海洋保护区来进行保护。缺乏弹性分支的空间明晰的丰度数据通常排除了指定这些区域以保护这些海洋捕食者的可能性。这里，我们的目标是通过系统的空间规划方法来识别保护弹to物种的海洋区域。我们首先估算了地中海西部五种弹性分支物种（三种鲨鱼和两种射线）的空间分布，然后应用了马克思决策支持工具来寻找优先的海洋保护区。我们发现这五个弹性支流分布在研究区域南部水域的沿海和坡地区域，而在北部地区，它们在大陆坡和向近海水域中分布丰富。在地中海西部的南部确定了保护重点领域。在分析中增加更复杂的成本层和分区并没有改变保护优先领域，这确认了这些领域对于弹性分支保护是高度一致且非常重要的。