Thanks for clarifying that the fisheman's group was not another leftist plant. And thanks for all the background. My disgust and frustration with government comes from reading so many stories like yours. Many posters have offered similar anecdotes that have been quite telling as to what we are all up against.
I believe that your level of frustration may have eclipsed SierraWasp's disgust for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (and that's sayin' somethin'!)
Hang in there. You ain't alone!
After posting, I went to have a look at California's Fish & Game website. I don't know if the areas listed were what is newly prohibited, or had already been "closed areas". Those listed (in my area, SLO County) do not appear that big, to me, and seem rather senseless, other than to have some result to show "something" is being done. I can think of more "prime" areas, a bit farther away from harbor entrances, that might have been better, but then again, as is said of fish, 'they all have tails' and move around, many of them, a LOT.
Tons of money spent to develop and discuss all this junk, and more additional multi-hundred thousands of dollars spent on new patrol boats, for what??? There are hardly any (commercial) fisherman left. Shoot, one just died the other day, who had become in recent years one of the "near shore" permit-only fisherman.
His death was not a fishing accident...I hear he fell off the pier, onto his boat. That may or may not be completly accurate...I haven't investigated for myself yet...
One less guy, but he was fairly active. Though he owned a boat that was about 35 ft., he did the so-called near-shore "live" market fishing, out of an aluminum skiff.
About six-nine months ago, his 35 ft.'er sunk at the dock (and was later refloated) because some idiot re-tied the dock lines in such a way that the boat was trapped by a rising tide. Then, the Fish & Game, and local Harbor patrol barred him from going onto or closely near the boat, with Fish and Game threatening him with arrest if he tried to get closer (I witnessed that part, personally), while the Harbor Department simultaneously attempted to get him to sign a paper stating that it was all "his" fault. It was a bad deal, all the way around. I do think the City has gotten stuck with the cost of raising the boat, so far.
Now he's dead, and his boat and skiff are surrounded by police tape, in impound in front of the Harbor office. He leaves behind a divorced wife, and a surviving daughter.