The city has the only harbor between Dana Point in Orange County and Mission Bay in San Diego, making it the closest ocean access for most North County boaters.
OCEANSIDE
Oceanside Harbor users are asking the city to reorganize its marine public safety program to improve the harbor’s lifeguarding, patrol and rescue services.
Police Department officers have shouldered public safety at the harbor for years, but some boaters say the police spend increasing amounts of their time patrolling in town instead of on the waterfront.
Also, sometimes new police officers assigned to the harbor have little ocean experience and are not trained or ready for the rapid response needed to save a vessel on fire in the harbor or in danger of sinking on the open sea.
“Some change is going to have to come,” said Les George, a retired Vista firefighter who’s rented a slip at the Oceanside harbor for 40 years and had a charter business there for 26 years.