3. Marine protected areas: Many intertidal areas are lightly to heavily exploited by humans for food gathering (e.g. clam digging in soft-sediment habitats and snail, mussel, and algal collecting in rocky intertidal habitats). In some locations, marine protected areas have been established where no collecting is permitted. The benefits of protected areas may spill over to positively impact adjacent unprotected areas. For example, a greater number of larger egg capsules of the edible snail "Concholepus" in protected vs. non-protected areas in Chile indicates that these protected areas may help replenish snail stocks in areas open to harvesting. The degree to which collecting is regulated by law differs with the species and habitat.