A petition to expand restrictions at Duxbury Reef, the largest shale reef in North America and a defining feature of the Bolinas coastline, will head to a final vote by the California Fish and Game Commission in October. But exactly what the commission will vote on this fall is unclear to residents who have spent months debating a changing proposal. The Environmental Action Committee of West Marin first filed a petition in 2023, asking the state to reclassify Duxbury from a marine conservation area, where hook-and-line fishing from shore is allowed, to a no-take reserve. It also sought to expand the area’s boundaries by more than four miles. But since then, it has changed its proposal, revising the proposed boundaries to soften the blow to offshore fishing. And after the Department of Fish and Wildlife released an evaluation recommending against a fishing ban and finding no evidence to support the E.A.C.’s claim that current rules were driving illegal harvest, the group dropped its push for a reserve. The E.A.C. now says it supports keeping Duxbury a conservation area while expanding the boundaries and clarifying the rules for the intertidal zone. “We still believe that a fully protected state marine reserve is what’s best for the ecosystem, as well as what’s easiest to enforce and clearest for visitors to follow,” said Ashley Eagle-Gibbs, the E.A.C.’s executive director. “But taking C.D.F.W.’s recommendations into account, as well as the local recreational shore fishing activity, we continue to support a balanced approach.” To opponents, however, the latest proposal may amount to much the same thing. Save Duxbury Access, a group opposing increased restrictions at the reef, argues that the proposal would effectively ban shore-based fishing, eeling, spearfishing, and any future abalone harvest. It would allow fishing only by “casting a line from the rocks or beach to waters beyond the intertidal zone.” But at low tide, the rocky intertidal area stretches hundreds of feet from shore, meaning anglers would have to stand at the outermost edge to cast a line legally. Some residents have asked the commission to clarify which version of the petition is now before it. At a commission meeting last week, Megan Matson, president of the Briones Lions Club, said the proposal had shifted so much that people no longer knew what boundaries or restrictions the commission was being asked to consider. Whether fishing limits would be measured from low tide or high tide, and whether they would extend 200 feet or 500 feet out to sea, were not minor technicalities, she said, but details with real consequences for local families. The commission will receive additional agency evaluations in August, including input from the state’s Ocean Protection Council. In October, it will dedicate two days to M.P.A. petitions before voting.