Late last week, the 18m vessel Maia became the last long-term boat to leave the marina, transferring to Lyttelton, and severing a 30-year home port connection for its skipper, Mark Hammond.
After the looming loss of the marina was recently announced, some community doubts arose about the future of the pontoon and associated finger wharf, near the Ray White building.
Approached for comment, Dunedin City Council acting group manager, parks and recreation, Scott MacLean said the council-owned wharf and pontoon remained "available for everyone to use".
"There are currently no plans to remove these DCC facilities," he said.
Otago Salmon Anglers Association committee member Gavin Cameron said retaining the pontoon was "brilliant — that’s good news".
Kelvin Sampson, of Waikouaiti, often fishes there, partly because he does not have a net to land any sizeable fish from the nearby wharf.
A DCC sign advises that only vessels up to 10m should visit, and only for pickups or drop-offs.
Several fishers said that longer boats sometimes visited, and at times stayed for hours or longer, making it harder to fish there.
This situation partly reflects a severe overall shortage of harbour mooring facilities for small recreational vessels.
Otago harbourmaster Steve Rushbrook said the pontoon was DCC-owned and he did not refer visiting vessels to it.
There was a lack of recreational moorings, which he had tried to partly address by adding two swing moorings near Rocky Point, he said.
The DCC had "not been made aware of concerns that the conditions of use are not being complied with", Mr MacLean said.
Signs at all DCC harbour pontoons were being updated and would provide consistent messages about conditions of use, he said.