I think 4salt has hit it on the head here, strictly an enforcement issue to keep people from targeting the kings. Another dumb thing that I've seen anglers do is "stretch" the length of a jack. So a 28-29 inch king is a jack (sorry officer, my tape measure was off, it sure looked like a jack to me).

It's really too bad, because the little bait stealers do go well under the broiler.

Most anglers are honest, but there's something about 'nook fisheries that bring out real eye rolling behavior. So much so, that there may be impacts since they bring out the crowds and the seasons are short. With a lot of nook fisheries, there can be significant numbers of "those few bad seeds"