Shore dwellers and part-time boaters are numbed to water awareness (even many who work on, in, and around boats and harbors are inattentive and unawares), after spending many years in fish harbors dealing with accidents and stupidity, I realized that most commercial fishermen now live ashore and go home at night, so, they too have become "part-timers".
This type of fisherman will now rehone their hyper-awareness only after a 7+ days at sea episode, then leave the boat, relax at home, forgetting it all.
After fishing failed in 1980 the industry changed, with most deckhands and fishing crews now being part-timers (often working only for one season and quitting), the days of the true Professional, full-time life-long career, live-aboard crew/skipper had passed.
So today, extremely few people live aboard full-time, the live-aboard fishermen were always the "eyes" of the harbor, and were there to full-time "man" emergencies, control on-dock safety and harbor sanity. To offset this loss of presence and enforcement "Destination" yacht/marina harbors now must use full-time police (just like major cargo Ports), and, then raise dock fees covering that added expense.
With the collapse of fishing, commercial fish harbors have downsized to perhaps 20 % of their 1975 sizes, and have been forced to share space with (and become) pleasure boat and hobby boat harbors (using part-time pleasure boater/marina mentality management) . . . that change from "professional commercial boat harbor management" into "Pleasure boat management" has had a monstrous impact over the past 40 years in the complexion of the 2019 harbor.
For me, the most noticeable has been the halting of infrastructure . . . in walking most modern harbors it is obvious the intended use is designed for the 40 foot and under pleasure/hobby craft, even new construction only builds 40 foot slips with 30 amp service (Since around 1985 most 40- plus foot vessels only have 50 amp service minimum),
This type of fisherman will now rehone their hyper-awareness only after a 7+ days at sea episode, then leave the boat, relax at home, forgetting it all.
After fishing failed in 1980 the industry changed, with most deckhands and fishing crews now being part-timers (often working only for one season and quitting), the days of the true Professional, full-time life-long career, live-aboard crew/skipper had passed.
So today, extremely few people live aboard full-time, the live-aboard fishermen were always the "eyes" of the harbor, and were there to full-time "man" emergencies, control on-dock safety and harbor sanity. To offset this loss of presence and enforcement "Destination" yacht/marina harbors now must use full-time police (just like major cargo Ports), and, then raise dock fees covering that added expense.
With the collapse of fishing, commercial fish harbors have downsized to perhaps 20 % of their 1975 sizes, and have been forced to share space with (and become) pleasure boat and hobby boat harbors (using part-time pleasure boater/marina mentality management) . . . that change from "professional commercial boat harbor management" into "Pleasure boat management" has had a monstrous impact over the past 40 years in the complexion of the 2019 harbor.
For me, the most noticeable has been the halting of infrastructure . . . in walking most modern harbors it is obvious the intended use is designed for the 40 foot and under pleasure/hobby craft, even new construction only builds 40 foot slips with 30 amp service (Since around 1985 most 40- plus foot vessels only have 50 amp service minimum),