My small harbor is the same. Fishing has dwindled and yachting has taken over. Sailing is giving way to motor yachts.
The foundries, welding and fabrication shops, machine shops, plumbing shops, and even the auto parts stores and auto repair garages are all gone, or pushed out of town.
Gentrification (summer people, retirees, remote work tech and finance people, tourists) are pushing the working class locals, including the fishermen, out of town. It’s not a real community of local tradesmen and craftsmen anymore, it’s become like a theme park.
New Orleans 1962
Today, even most of the wharves to the right are gone, replaced by a park and a walking/running/bike path. During many of my river transits from the early Seventies through the Eighties, nearly every downtown berth held a merchant ship, from above the bridge out of frame to the left, all the way around the bend at the right.
As for a movie set around the maritime industry I think an enormous container ship with a relatively small crew would make an excellent setting for either a murder mystery or horror film. Could be either haunting (perhaps the cargo) or monster of some type. Or could go the murderer/saboteur route; someone in the crew and we don’t know who it is.
Could be a bit like “Alien”, use the vastness and remoteness of the vessel to build suspense and the feeling of the unknown. Throw in a storm or mechanical issues. I think it could be pretty creepy/suspenseful if done properly.
My family and I were just talking about this after seeing a cargo ship traveling at night while we were on the ferry coming home from Thanksgiving dinner.
Berthed there in 1980 in one of the first geared container ships. Lot of fun working containers between the shed and the ship’s side.
As you stated earlier, no gates to the wharves. Whenever I docked downtown, my girlfriend would drive her car right up the apron to the ships side. I would toss down into her convertibles backseat whatever I had bought that was soft, e.g. carpets, sea bag if I was paying off - found my old seabag while decluttering the other day, made when I was A.B. in '77. Used until around 2010. Got a bit rushed attaching the handle, was paying off that day.
It sure has, and one of the things that have sped the decline is the inability to do maintenance on your boat. Can’t chip or paint on the waterway, or even wash for that matter. Grinding, cutting, and welding need a permit that comes from the fire department, if you can meet all of their draconian requirements.
I spent a lot of time early in my career going to & from ships along Orange Street and Napoleon Avenue wharfs.
Chief, if you’ve not been in a while you wouldn’t recognize anywhere along the waterfront. There are container gantries at Napoleon now.
It starts with a working waterfront. Then sailboats show up. Then powerboats show up. Then condos take over from all the boatyards. Then anyone doing anything that might bother said million-dollar condo owners gets banned. Then everyone complains that the once vibrant waterfront is all gated off and wonders why.
Don’t say the N-word or he’ll appear. 
I dont really agree at all. Its been a while but the Captain Philips movie was a big hit and for a while you’d hear variations of “Im da captain now” as frequently as Borat impersonation. There was major interest in the Ever Given in the Suez, the FSK bridge collapse, and a really surprising amount of interest in the Edmund Fitzgerald that presented itself with the passing of Gordon Lightfoot as well as the 50th anniversary just recently. Popular culture is a lot more fragmented in the age of the internet but there is clearly still a lot of mainstream interest in the merchant marine. It just doesnt show up until there is a significant reason to talk about it.
One thing I would say is that people have a lot less firsthand knowledge of how the industry works but thats understandable because the industry is small and few people have direct interaction with it. But whenever a big story happens I am flooded with all kinds of questions from curious friends and family who genuinely have interest, just little exposure.
Was there in 1962 with this ship:
And in 1966 with this ship:
Update:
And in 1967 with this one. Seen here as Djatibaru:
PS: The first Djakarta Lloyd vessel under Indonesian flag to visit USA.
The Master and deck officers were all from Indonesian Navy, trained in the Netherlands.
“Gyda” typical of that eras beautiful Scandinavian and German-built ships.
The lines were not classic but the accommodation was of a standard that we are unlikely to see again. She was fully cellular in all hatches except for 1 and 6 that had hydraulic folding tweendeck lids for heavy cargo.
There was just enough room on Napoleon Wharf for a 40 foot container orientated fore and aft to pass between the edge of the roof and the ship side. The crane driver couldn’t see anything and walkie talkies hadn’t become a thing except for tankers.
Getting a taxi back to the ship at night according to those who got ashore required one to be seated in the cab with the door shut. if you were outside the cab the cabbie took off.
We were our own cargo planners in the Caribbean. No one had worked with any at the time. As mates we walked around with notebooks looking for missing containers in between dealing with teething problems of automatic spreaders and spotter motors.
That’s a fine-looking ship in any case. Sounds like you really earned your money in her.
The grossly excessive Seattle Fire Department requirements have driven a lot of boat maintenance and repair out of Seattle. Much easier to work in Tacoma, Port Townsend, Bellingham, or various smaller coastal towns.
The aggressive eco-freaks with cellphones and the environmental police have also driven a lot of boat maintenance and repair out of Seattle.
The Seattle based companies that have their own compliant facilities, staff, and good relationships with the Fire Department and the environmental agencies are able to work in Seattle. It’s more difficult , time consuming and expensive for everyone else.
This is what happens when regulations become excessive, only big players can survive and Bill’s Boat Repair Shop is hounded out of town.
“Why Has The Merchant Marine Fallen Out of the Public Conscienceness?”
Maybe it will return soon. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that Japan and Korea will pay the US $150 billion to build ships in America.
No further comment necessary.
What do they get in return??