If I am remembering correctly barbless hooks were required for one season as a test to see if the survival rate of juvenile blackmouth (shakers) would increase. It took me a while to get used to but I like the rule now. Like all new Sport Fishing rules it was never removed. The experimental rule at Seiku this year where you can't bring a fish in your boat but it doesn't say anything about not netting them, not lifting them up, etc. That rule will most likely never be removed but instead expanded to other areas whether it's proven effective or not. How do you really prove it does any good or not? Some person or group dreamed it up and now it's law.