The Vistula Lagoon is a transboundary water body, shared by Poland, an EU member state, and Russia. This fact hampers effective management of waters with respect to navigation, water quality, fisheries and tourism.The current state of communities living by the Vistula Lagoon is rather difficult. Economy of the southern part of the lagoon has been suffering persisting unemployment, the northern part performs better but not by using the lagoon but due to attractive Baltic Sea beaches along the Vistula Lagoon Spit, that draw numerous tourists during the summer season. Next, the entire Polish part of the Vistula Lagoon is under NATURA 2000 and Birds Directive. This poses great problems to fishermen and potential spatial development investors. Many investments are stopped or hampered by NATURA 2000 restrictions. Also, fishermen lose their fishing potential on behalf of very large population of cormorants who can eat more fish than fishermen catch. Laws and regulations are not adjusted to the existing situation and lead to overuse of fish stocks or destruction of fish spawning areas.Given the transboundary dimension of the Vistula Lagoon it became a case study for investigations of the FP7 LAGOONS project. It includes a socio-economic workpackage, aimed at identification of management problems raised by various stakeholders and end-users of the lagoon. For this purpose a series of interviews was carried out with representatives of local communities living and working on the Polish side of the Vistula Lagoon. The purpose of those interviews was to identify problems and conflicts concerning local environment, management of the area and legislation from the perspective of ‘ordinary’ people. Unfortunately, similar interviews on the Russian side of the lagoon were not executed, due to general financial constraints faced by non-EU partners participating in the FP7 EU program project.The respondents highlighted several key problems that prevent prosperity and sustainability of the lagoon and add to persisting relative poverty of the region. Primarily, they pointed out to bad quality of water in the lagoon, despite recent improvements in terms of erection of many new waste water treatment plants. Then, they indicated poor touristic and harbor infrastructure on both the northern and southern parts of the lagoon. Next, they signaled bureaucratic difficulties related to ecological restrictions imposed by NATURA 2000 requirements. This included the strain on the fishing sector by very large colony of cormorants. Finally, they discussed the problem of free navigation and access to the lagoon by Polish and non-Russian vessels. Nevertheless, the respondents believe that the lagoon possesses high economic potential, which must be harnessed to begin region's economic recovery and first steps toward sustainable development.