Sounds like crony capitalism to me - in both cases.
I think it pretty much is a state enforced monoploy for the benefit of a few. I noticed one of the posters stated that the legislature changed the law so that the eel licenses would only be issued to those who already had them the previous year. Previously it was a lottery. I can sort of see something like this in the lobster industry where there is a big investment in a boat, but all this costs is a couple of nets. Smells of corruption to me.