A court out in California has officially made the ruling that bees are now fish, and can thusly be protected under the established endangered species protection laws for the state.
As handed down early Tuesday, the ruling from the California Court of Appeals for the Third Appellate District stated that the California Fish and Game Commission finally continued with its choice to add four select species of bumblebee to the list of threatened species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act for California. The Court also ruled that the law’s history, and the fact that the Fish and Game Commission previously made the choice to classify a species of snail that lives on land as a threatened fish, is what would allow the Commission to count these bees as invertebrates and as such make them fall under the definition of a fish for the Commission.
“Although the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish in section 45 is not so limited,” stated Judge Ronald B. Robie in part of the released majority opinion about the case. As part of the Fish and Game Code for California, A “fish” is classified as “a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.” This same code also states that an “endangered species” is “a native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant which is in serious danger of becoming extinct.” It also takes strides to define “threatened species” in the same manner.
The court first discovered that the Fish and Game Commission had the power to list invertebrate animals, or any animal that does not have a spine, as threatened or even endangered species. Going further, the court discovered that the legal definition of fish, as described under California law, contains many other classes of animals that exist both in and out of water. The COurt also highlighted that the State Legislature even pushed through a law back in 1980 that declared that the Trinity bristle snail, a mollusk species that exists on land, as a “rare animal” which meant it would be marked as a threatened species concerning the Endangered Species Act. The Court was, therefore, able to come to the decision that it must take a quite liberal stance on the law.
“We conclude a liberal interpretation of the Act, supported by the legislative history and the express language… that a terrestrial mollusk and invertebrate is a threatened species (express language we cannot ignore), is that fish defined… as a term of art, is not limited solely to aquatic species,” stated Robie. “Accordingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like each of the four bumblebee species, may be listed as an endangered or threatened species under the Act.”
This Court’s ruling officially overturned a ruling from a lower court, and it is the most recent development in a series that started back in 2019. As reported by Bloomberg Law, the Fish and Game Commission held a vote to consider a selection of four different bumblebee species — the Crotch, Franklin’s, Western, and Suckley cuckoo bumblebees — for inclusion as a threatened species. If the listing officially becomes approved, it could have far-reaching consequences for many things such as grazing rules, pesticide restrictions, and other rules to protect their habitats.