Can I Use Salt As Sanitizer Instead of Chlorine?

[catfish]

I'm having a hard time finding information on using high saline as a permanent, maintenance-free solution. To avoid corrosion issues, I envision on making it aesthetically closer to an artificial pond, with a dark bottom and natural looking borders that make small amounts of detritus acceptable. Filtration would thus be unnecessary. As with the beach, there'd be a shower nearby to rinse off the salt residue. (As a Floridian, heating would be a unnecessary luxury.)

To me this seems like an all around winner for someone that wants something aesthetically pleasing and completely sanitary with no maintenance whatsoever other than some skimming. But with the rise of salt-assisted chlorine generation, it is darn near impossible to find any information on this... costs, unexpected side effects, salt-tolerant organisms...