There is no need to list the litany of complaints about cowboys on the roads and taking up public space on pavements and piazzas.

The rampant abuse is well known, as are the pointless attempts of the public to make their voices heard by the authorities.

However, another side of the cowboy mentality has for too long been overlooked: the situation at sea.

For many years, the main gripe was the lack of seamanship skills and poor etiquette.

The nautical licence has done little to curtail the wild impulses once boat drivers have the chance to push the throttle, especially motorboat drivers who speed past, blissfully ignorant of the impact of their wake.

The few enforcement dinghies out there cannot even begin to cope, even if they really wanted to.

Over the past years, the growth in population and disposable income have led to a staggering proliferation of boats. It is no surprise considering the beaches are full, when concessionaires control swathes of public areas and traffic is unbearable.

The number of boats has grown well beyond the capacity of marinas, leaving owners with only two options: using a trailer to get the boat in and out of the water each time you use it; or to put down what the Transport Authority optimistically calls a mooring.

Boat owners are actually supposed to apply to the authority for such a mooring, and use an officially registered buoy.

Go to Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq or St Paul’s Bay and try to count the official buoys compared to the jerrycans, detergent canisters and small buoys with boat names scribbled on them in indelible pen.

The next development was inevitable: boat owners who wanted to avoid crowds still wanted to socialise. Welcome to rafting, where boats are tied up to each other with scant attention to anchoring principles, let alone to navigation of other boats and to the safety of swimmers.

We have problems with jet skis and speedboats hired to those with money but no sense – let alone qualifications.

What can you do but despair when a speedboat pokes into darkened caves in Comino full of swimmers “to allow the tourists to take a photo”?

The latest scams are just one more proof, if any were needed, that anyone can do anything they want without fear of retribution.

Restaurants in Gozo are apparently “treating the sea as a private car park” in Marsalforn and Xlendi, making unfounded claims of ownership of buoys they can then offer to incoming boats.

Similar complaints were made about operators in Għadira Bay and Santa Marija Bay, in Comino.

The brazen cheek, not to mention the arrogance of their approach, is only one part of the sorry tale: how much worse that the victims find nowhere to turn.

Each authority passes the buck until the complaint is filed away to gather dust.

This is the impunity that the Times of Malta has written about in so many contexts: the knowledge that you will get away with breaking the law as no one bothers to enforce it.

We have complained about beach concessions putting out umbrellas and loungers, litter and overcrowding.

But we should not forget our beautiful sea and the need to protect this extraordinary resource from its own popularity.

The government has shown itself to be incompetent to control and to enforce so many issues.

This is sadly just another one to add to the list.