As further background , closings have been a somewhat common occurrence for decades (especially during the months
@ChuckP mentioned). I specifically remember it being closed at Thanksgiving for multiple days as far back as 2001. Dive shop owner was really pissed because he was missing out on $5,000/day of lost revenue.
They used to frequently close the port in stages based on boat size so the larger cattle boats were affected less often. If you dive on larger boats you might have even gone out without knowing the port was closed to smaller boats. Seems like boat-sized based closures happen less often now. The larger boats don’t help that much to reduce overall diver risk that much. Obviously reduces risk of capsizing, but doesn’t do much for risk of captain losing track of part of group in wave action , risk of being hit by passing boat while floating , ladder injuries etc. Captain has better view from higher up on large boat , but in larger wave action that only helps a little.
We had one port captain that probably closed the port more often than necessary a year or two ago. There were a lot of angry postings on scubaboard (though sometimes when people were complaining the captain was actually correct, which did not help the broader argument ). Seems like things are better now with current port captain but opinions may vary