The fastest way to make fisherfolk angry is to attempt to stop them from going fishing, or to deny them access to popular, productive and accessible locations without some very, very good reasons. One state government in Australia is finding this out right now! In late August this year, the NSW State Government released phase three of its Hawkesbury Shelf Marine Bioregion Assessment. Contained within this very extensive series of documents were proposals to create a network of 25 new, enlarged or modified habitat protection zones within an extensive Marine Park stretching from Newcastle to Wollongong and including the entire Sydney metropolitan coastline and harbour. Included within the various zones of this proposed Marine Park are a significant number of marine sanctuaries, where line and spear fishing would be completely banned if the plan goes ahead, as well as numerous other “special purpose” zones with varying levels of restrictions on different activities, both recreational and commercial. The NSW Marine Estate (the over-arching body behind this proposal) also announced a series of public consultation or information sharing meetings to be staged across the zone throughout late August and into September, as well as inviting both written and on-line submissions from all interested parties. The closing date for this consultation period was initially set down as Thursday, 27 September. At the time of writing there was already some suggestion that this consultation period may be extended due to the intensity of the public backlash against the proposals. To say that the release of this highly contentious and rather unexpected proposal has created a storm of adverse reaction in recreational fishing circles would be a serious understatement! Within hours of the release of the Marine Estate’s on-line documents, a Facebook group calling itself STOP THE LOCKOUT! was...