Fishermen used to sell their catch right off the boat in the centre of Marseille, at the bottom end of the "Vieux Port" (old harbour). Octopus, congers, and sometimes others, were still alive.
My feeling is that people were also eating more seafood. Many fishmongers closed down although the seafood counter in local supermarkets is still miles ahead of anything you see in, say, the UK.
One other thing is that how much the environment degraded since the 70s-80s. On the coast itself the variety of fish and sea life you can see has really collapsed. You need to go to the islands (of the Count of Monte Cristo fame), which are now a nature reserve but also simply farther away from the city, to see what the coast looked like underwater 40 years ago.
