The main aim of the ECOST project is to develop a new approach to assess the societal cost of fishing activities and fishing policies. By societal cost we mean all costs linked to fishing activities: these may be ecological (alteration of the capacity of a system), economic (all costs linked to production, management, subsidies and external factors), social (linked to choices made in public policy, food security and safety, provision for national or international markets, the eradication of poverty and to development models (small scale fishing versus industrial fishing).
The project has to be seen from the wider perspective of equipping public decision-makers and society with the appropriate tools and methods needed to take into account, not only immediate economic and social profits, but also the costs engendered by fishing activities which relate as much to ecosystems as to societies.
