A California Court has ruled that bees are fish, and can be protected under the state’s endangered species protection laws.
In a ruling published Tuesday, the California Court of Appeals for the Third Appellate District said that the California Fish and Game Commission could move forward with a decision to add four species of bumblebees to the list of threatened species protected by the state’s Endangered Species Act. The Court ruled that the law’s history, along with the Fish and Game Commission’s previous decision to declare a species of snail that lives on land as a threatened fish, meant that the Commission could count bees as invertebrates, which fall under the Commission’s definition of fish.
“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,” Judge Ronald B. Robie wrote in the majority opinion in the case. Under the California Fish and Game Code, a “fish” is defined as “a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.” The code also defines an “endangered species” as “a native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant which is in serious danger of becoming extinct.” It defines “threatened species” in a similar way.
The Court first found that the Fish and Game Commission had the authority to list invertebrate animals, that is, any animal without a spine, as an endangered or threatened species. Continuing, the court found that the definition of fish under California law includes other classes of animals that live both in and out of water. The Court also pointed out that the State Legislature passed a law in 1980 declaring the Trinity bristle snail, a mollusk species that lives on land, as a “rare animal,” which meant that it would be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The Court therefore concluded that it must take a liberal interpretation of 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,” Robie wrote. “Accordingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like each of the four bumble bee species, may be listed as an endangered or threatened species under the Act.”
The Court’s ruling overturned a lower court ruling, and is the latest development in a saga that began in 2019. According to Bloomberg Law, the Fish and Game Commission voted to consider the four bumblebee species — the Crotch, Franklin’s, Western, and Suckley cuckoo bumblebees — for inclusion as threatened species. If the Commission approved the listing, it would have far-reaching consequences for pesticide restrictions, grazing rules, and other rules to protect their habitats.
A group of agriculture industry organizations sued the Commission to stop the process, arguing that state law clearly did not list insects as eligible to be included under the Endangered Species Act. A judge in the Sacramento Superior Court ruled in favor of the agriculture groups, before the decision was appealed.