Looking southeast you can see the buildings built out into the water on pilings.

The industry here had its height pre and post World War II.

A combination of factors resulted in a crash after 1947. First the fish population collapsed due to the natural 50 year cycle and second was massive over fishing. The interest in canned fish also decreased after WWII, both from the general public and the US Military.

The industry rapidly declined, by the very late 1950's many of the canneries were either working at vey reduced capacity, shut down or all out abandoned.

In 1973 the Hodven cannery; already operating at a fraction of its capacity, closed for good and its equipment gets taken to a cannery at Moss Landing. At the time the city of Monterey had largely written off the Row, it was clear it was never coming back and starts writing up action plans for razing the area.

Cannery row was now silent, the buildings that had gotten only minimum maintenance in the Row's declining years now got none and the oceanside environment worked rapidly at the old wood. Fires and rot took its toll. By the late 70's what buildings were still standing were doing so by force of habit.

When the Hodven cannery was demolished for construction of the Monterey Aquarium the fortunes of the area started looking up.

Today it's thriving as a kitschy tourist area, though sadly there little remaining of the historic structures/industry that once lined this shoreline.