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A bumblebee is a fish under California law, a California court said in a ruling this week.
And therefore the bumblebee should be protected by the endangered species ordinances of the state, court documents show.
In the case, Almond Alliance of California v. Fish and Game Commissionthe California District Court of Appeals for the Third District said the “issue here is whether the bumblebee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of a fish,” according to legal documents.
According to the judges, the bumblebee is classified as a fish as a liberal interpretation of the word “fish”, as well as the state’s own legislative history, including non-aquatic life.
A dark earth bumblebee (Bombus Terrestris) sits on a flowering mint plant (Mentha x piperita) in Berlin, Germany, on August 23, 2021. (Photo by Frank Hoensch / Getty Images) (Photo by Frank Hoensch / Getty Images)
The judges explained that “although the term fish is understood colloquially and commonly to refer to aquatic species,” the law, as it is written, makes the “legal definition of fish … not so limited, “court documents show.
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The court explained that the “Endangered Species Act” has given classification authority to the Fish and Game Commission to determine which is and is not an endangered species, according to court documents.
And, according to the law, the commission is solely responsible for establishing “a list of endangered species and a list of endangered species.” The court also held that the authority of the commission “was not limited to listing only aquatic invertebrates.”
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The state’s own legislative history also supports this “liberal interpretation” to classify a non-aquatic bumblebee as a “fish”, as under state law the Commission may list any invertebrate as an endangered or threatened species “.
March 24, 2021, Hessen, Frankfurt / Main: a bumblebee landed on a flower. Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa (Photo by Boris Roessler / picture alliance via Getty Images) (Photo by Boris Roessler / picture alliance via Getty Images)
Prior to 1969, the law defined fish as “wild fish, molluscs or crustaceans, including any part, breeding or egg”. That same year, the Legislature amended a section defining fish to add invertebrates and amphibians.
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This section was only changed once, in 2015, when the state legislature changed the definition to say “‘[f]ish “means wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, clutch, or egg of any of these animals.”
Fish for sale at a restaurant next to the port of Essaouira on August 1, 2007 in Essaouira, Morocco. (Photo by Chris Jackson / Getty Images) (Photo by Chris Jackson / Getty Images)
“We recognize that the scope of the definition is ambiguous,” the judges added, showing court documents.
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The court finally ruled that Judge James P. Arguelles of the Sacramento County High Court “was wrong when [he] he came to the opposite conclusion. “