The Adriatic sea represents the environmental, social and cultural element bridging the eastern and western shores of the area.Nowadays, the richness of natural resources characterizing the Adriatic sea is endangered by man-made factors that are threatening the vitality of the ecosystems. Fishing and aquaculture activities are recognized among those mostly impacting on the sea ecosystems. Indiscriminate fishing and income-driven aquaculture led in recent times to a progressive reduction of marine stocks and destruction of natural habitats, causing also economic and social negative effects on coastal communities and other economic sectors (especially tourism).EU fishery policy addresses these issues, however the solely national application of such policies and the contemporary sharing of common natural resources with non-EU countries did not allow to achieve the EU goals of environment protection.The project intends to provide long-lasting responses to such problems, promoting the improvement of the sea and coastal ecosystems by proposing models for a coordinated fishery management pairing with direct actions for improving fisheries sustainability and strengthening the marine biodiversity. The project will trigger a virtuous process of sustainable development and competitiveness of the coastal communities depending from fishery, in a common cross-border framework of economic, social and territorial cohesion along the Adriatic sea. The partnership proposing ECO.SEA comes from those Adriatic countries (Italy, Croatia, Albania) in which fishery is most relevant, consequently with a higher potential of mitigating fishery effects. Partners are institutionally and technically competent in their countries for the implementation of project activities and are directly linked (or are themselves) policy makers for the sector. ECO.SEA objectives will be reached through activities organized in 6 work packages (WP) strictly co-related each other, in which all partners are involved following a result-driven approach and in which all project target groups and stakeholders are directly addressed throughout the project implementation. The “bone” of ECO.SEA will be the “Adriatic Advisory Board” (WP3), which will create a cross-border common understanding and sharing of goals, pooling together knowledge and expertise which will steer all further project activities. The Advisory Board will see the participation not only of project partners, but also of the relevant target groups and stakeholders, namely national, regional and local policy makers of the fishery sector, enterprises through their Organization of Producers, scientific centres and universities). In this common framework, the project will then act in parallel by implementing direct pilot actions increasing the Adriatic biodiversity (WP4) and mitigating the negative effects on the environment deriving from fishery (WP5). A careful monitoring of the environment effects of project activities, in terms of ecosystems strengthening and biodiversity improvement will then be carried out (WP6). The mainstreaming of ECO.SEA experiences and approaches into national and regional policies will be promoted already within the project duration, creating a joint commitment of the involved actors beyond the partnership (WP6). All project activities will be supported by an adequate communication management (WP2) that will allow not only to comply with the obligatory publicity requirements, but also and especially will further increase the spreading of project results well beyond the cooperation area. Last, the project will be managed according to a rigorous set of actions (WP1) that will ensure its sound implementation, with the achievement of the expected outputs and results (in qualitative and quantitative terms) accompanied by the complete fulfillment of all legal/administrative obligations related to the management of IPA and Structural funds.An independent evaluation will measure such achievements.