On June 17, 2026, the California Fish and Recreation Fee voted unanimously to approve an emergency regulation banning wire chief and hooks over 1.5 inches for anybody fishing the ocean from Pigeon Level south, primarily the complete Southern and Central California coast. No public listening to course of. No actual alternative for the hundreds of anglers it impacts to weigh in earlier than the vote. Only a unanimous sure, and a five-day clock for the general public to reply after the very fact.
The said aim is to scale back white shark interactions. It’s clear that the group who handed this has zero first-hand data of the fishery and what they’re really doing. This regulation does nearly nothing to deal with that downside whereas doing actual, measurable hurt to a sustainable fishery that has nothing to do with the issue.
I need to stroll by way of precisely what’s taking place right here, why the maths doesn’t add up, and what you possibly can nonetheless do about it earlier than the window closes.
What the Regulation Truly Does
The brand new rule prohibits wire or metallic chief and hooks bigger than 1.5 inches in inside measurement when fishing in ocean waters from Pigeon Level south. That’s not a slender, surgical repair aimed on the handful of individuals illegally focusing on white sharks. That’s a blanket restriction on gear utilized by each angler focusing on any shark species alongside a lot of the California coast.
Leopard sharks. Soupfin sharks. Sevengill sharks. Threshers. Makos. None of those are white sharks. None of those are the issue this regulation claims to unravel. All of them are actually caught beneath the identical gear restriction as in the event that they have been.
The Math They’re Not Doing
Right here’s the justification, in their very own phrases: Shark Stewards has documented anglers illegally focusing on greater than 30 white sharks in Southern California. That’s the quantity driving a coastwide gear ban.
I need you to take a seat with that quantity for a second, as a result of I don’t assume the Fee did.
I’m one angler. In a typical yr I hook someplace round 50 leopard sharks from the surf. In a powerful yr, I’ve topped 100. I’m one in every of hundreds of leisure surf anglers fishing this coast, season after season, doing precisely what California’s structure says we’ve got the precise to do: fish.
If wire chief disappears, right here’s what occurs to a significant share of these leopard sharks, soupfins, and sevengills hooked by me and each different angler like me. They don’t get landed cleanly, unhooked, and launched the way in which they do now. They get fought on a frontrunner materials that their abrasive pores and skin shreds by way of, they usually swim off with a hook and a size of monofilament line nonetheless connected. That fish doesn’t disappear from the ecosystem unaffected. It carries that gear with it, typically for the remainder of its life.
Now multiply that by each angler on this coast focusing on these species, for each season this regulation stays in impact. The Fee is buying and selling a documented 30 unlawful white shark interactions towards an uncounted, unexamined variety of leopard sharks, soupfins, sevengills, threshers, makos and extra species that can now be hooked and misplaced fairly than hooked and safely launched. No one on the Fee seems to have achieved that math. I simply did it for them, utilizing nothing however my very own private catch numbers.
The Hook Dimension Rule Makes This Worse, Not Higher
There’s a second piece of this regulation that’s gotten much less consideration and deserves extra: the 1.5-inch most hook measurement.
I fish 7/0 to 9/0 circle hooks for leopard sharks and soupfins. These hooks are smaller than the brand new restrict, so on paper I’m nice. However anglers focusing on sevengill sharks, threshers, makos, and different bigger species of fish that require bigger gear due to their measurement and the way in which they feed, are actually being pushed towards smaller hooks than what’s acceptable for these species.
Right here’s why that issues. A correctly sized circle hook is designed to search out the nook of a fish’s mouth nearly each time, a clear hookset that’s simple to take away and minimizes harm to the fish and threat to the angler. Drive an angler onto undersized gear for the species they’re really focusing on, and also you improve the chances of a deep hook, a swallowed hook, intestine hooking, the precise type of harm circle hooks have been popularized to stop within the first place. A regulation offered as defending sharks is, on this particular provision, making harm extra seemingly for the sharks and anglers.
That’s not a facet impact. That’s the direct, foreseeable results of the rule as written.
This Was By no means About Leopard Sharks
To be clear about who’s behind this: the regulation was pushed primarily by Shark Stewards, an advocacy group, with assist from a handful of different teams. Even Shark Stewards’ personal public statements acknowledge the Fee didn’t undertake all the things they requested for, in addition they needed chum and dwell bait banned and drone-assisted baiting prohibited. These requests received denied. The wire chief and hook measurement restriction received accredited.
What that tells you is that this was by no means a cautious, narrowly tailor-made response constructed across the precise mechanics of white shark interactions. It was a broad gear ban, geared toward an issue affecting a tiny fraction of anglers, utilized to each angler on the coast focusing on any shark species, handed in 5 days with nearly no alternative for the folks really affected to be heard earlier than the vote occurred.
Our Proper to Fish Is Not Non-compulsory
California’s structure ensures the folks the precise to fish. That proper isn’t limitless, the state can and does regulate fishing for real conservation and security causes, and that authority is reputable. However that authority comes with a accountability to make use of it rigorously, to weigh actual prices towards actual advantages, and to focus on the precise downside as a substitute of sweeping up everybody in attain as a result of it’s administratively simpler than doing the more durable work of writing a narrower rule.
That accountability wasn’t met right here. A documented downside involving a small variety of folks illegally focusing on one species was a blanket restriction on gear utilized by a sustainable, long-running, catch-and-release fishery that has no significant overlap with that downside. That’s not cautious regulation. That’s overreach, dressed up as conservation, and it units a precedent that ought to concern each angler on this state no matter what species you goal.
What You Can Nonetheless Do
This emergency regulation has already been adopted by the Fee. It’s headed to the Workplace of Administrative Legislation for last evaluate. There’s a slender public remark window earlier than that evaluate closes, and it issues greater than you may assume, each for this particular motion and for the report it creates if this comes up for everlasting rulemaking later this yr.
Right here’s precisely what to do, and it takes about 5 minutes:
Ship an e-mail to each of those addresses:
Topic line: Emergency Laws: Leisure Gear Restrictions for White Shark
Within the physique, embody:
- What species you fish for and roughly how typically
- Why wire chief issues for touchdown these species safely and cleanly, fairly than dropping fish with trailing gear
- Your identify and that you simply’re a California resident
Maintain it factual. Maintain it private. Share your precise numbers, your precise expertise. That’s what makes these feedback onerous to dismiss.
The deadline is tight. Feedback are due inside 5 calendar days of the Fee’s submittal to OAL, anticipated round June 25. That places the true deadline proper round June 30. Don’t wait on this.
For those who fish this coast, for any species, this impacts you. Not as a result of your particular goal species is known as on this rule, however due to what it represents: a regulatory physique deciding {that a} documented downside affecting a couple of dozen incidents justifies a blanket restriction on a complete fishery, handed in 5 days, with nearly no room for the folks affected to be heard first.
Ship the e-mail. Share this with one other angler. The window is brief, however it’s not closed but.
Have questions on how this impacts your particular setup or species? Drop a remark beneath or attain out immediately. I’ll preserve this publish up to date because the state of affairs develops.
