Gooey,
your suggestions are very valid but i'm afraid DFO will most likely not agree. Not trying to shake your tree...
When I worked at Berry's, I dealt with local DFO fairly often as I was the voice of the telephone fishing report for a few years. I did not hold back in my thoughts on current management and regulation as most who where familiar with the report will remember.... controversy and calling a spade a spade were where I "came into my own".
The question arose one day while talking to a senior fisheries manager, I asked... why do you guys not change regulations to limit leader lengths for certain fisheries. At the time I was addressing the mayhem on the vedder and what was happening down at the infamous K.W. Bridge.
The response I got was that they do not have any mandate to regulate leader length. There are too many fishing methods used to put a blanket leader length restriction on any fishery and to police such a regulation would be futile at best.
Myself, I have bottom bounced over the past few years.... 5 to be exact (not counting 2007 of course)..... I found a shorter 6foot leader to be actually more effect on fraser springs than a longer leaders used for sox.
Trying to regulate leader length is .... and should be the last thing DFO should be worrying about.
I personally use leaders surpassing 30 inches quite frequently when targetting in river coho and steelhead (not the fraser but other waters). A leader approaching 3 feet is often required to properly fish some presentations in some waters and as mentioned above, fly fishers use 6 to 9 foot leaders... then tippet as the norm.... we can't very well ban flyfishing because the leader is too long.
I wholly understand that you feel that this type of regulation is required.... and in some ways i agree with you, but I feel your efforts would fall on deaf ears at DFO.
HOWEVER, if this type of change is something you wish to try to bring to the table with DFO, good for you, at least it shows you care about the crap going on out there.... Your idea is one that I would support if presented properly.