Along the Adriatic coast, we are witnessing the negative social and spatial phenomenon of coastal devastation, which is a public good. Devastation is realized in various ways, but in this work it is primarily shown through concretization, illegal construction, beach filling and excessive apartment building. The stated problems came to the fore especially with the uncontrolled development of tourism on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, which began in the second half of the 20th century, and with globalization and other processes (from the independence of Croatia and the transition from a state-controlled to a market economy), it significantly intensified. Although tourism and its activities are largely responsible for today's appearance of the Adriatic coast, because by making a profit from them the coast is beginning to be understood as an essential resource, in the public media space there is a strong association of devastation with tourism. The main goal of the paper was to investigate coastal devastation through the analysis of legislation, its application and media images of selected examples of coastal devastation, Vir, Vruja bay and the recent example of the promenade in Pula (Lungomare). And while the basic criteria for selecting each individual example were the scope and duration of illegal construction on Vir, the usurpation of public property and later illegal construction on it in Vruja, and the granting of a concession on public property in the case of Pula, protests by civil actors and media coverage were taken as additional criteria. exposure of the mentioned examples. During the research, methods of analysis of relevant documents and content and spatial data were used, as well as qualitative-quantitative analysis of internet articles and posts on social networks on the topic of coastal devastation in three basic examples of this thesis. The research results point to numerous vagueness and inconsistencies in the enforcement of laws that protect the coastal area. This type of legislation leaves a gray area open to manipulation by those who directly benefit from it. The analysis of the devastation of the coast in the public media space showed an extremely negative attitude of the public towards the destruction of the coast and those actors who are responsible for it, but also the willingness of the civil sector to proactively act in the service of space protection. A small number of professional papers that investigate this socially relevant topic only indicate the urgency of solving this problem in a legal framework that cannot be developed qualitatively without academically relevant knowledge that should enable a better understanding of the problems that irresponsible behaviour towards the seashore and other natural resources leads to.