California has an incredible list of regulations in the nation, which is frustrating and in many instances unnecessary and nothing more than a means to generate revenue for the bloated government.
However, I believe this is not one of those instances. A good example is I recall In the 1960s my parents taking me and my brothers to the beach one night with our little beach buckets to catch grunion. There were hundreds of families with little kids there waiting for the grunion to come ashore to spawn. There were so many that it was impossible to count. All the kids (myself included) picked them up by the handful. It was perfectly legal at the time. My parents made us put them back in the water before we left because we weren’t going to eat them and most of them were already dead anyway. People would do this every night during the annual grunion run. Fast forward 50 years later, the grunion do not spawn anymore on most So. Cal beaches.
They took away a poacher’s fishing license. Does this stop him from poaching?
I’m a California boater. Our boat is in the harbor in Ventura. Everyone hits the islands frequently and everyone knows the rules and regs for boating and fishing. It can cost you money if you don’t.