Bumblebees can now legally be considered FISH after a years-long legal battle over California loophole

A CALIFORNIA court has made the seemingly astonishing ruling that bees can legally be considered fish – thanks to a legal loophole.

The ruling, made May 31, overturned an earlier judgement which found bumblebees couldn’t be considered “fish” under the California Endangered Species Act.

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California’s Third District Court of Appeal said in its ruling: “The issue presented here is whether the bumblebee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish, as that term is used in the definitions of endangered species in section 2062, threatened species in section 2067, and candidate species (i.e., species being considered for listing as endangered or threatened species) in section 2068 of the Act.”

The California Endangered Species Act was drawn up to protect “native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant.”

Noticeably absent from the list of protected species are invertebrates.

Thanks to a loophole for insects, mollusks and other spineless creatures falling under the umbrella term “invertebrate,” the act defines a “fish” as “a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”

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By expanding the definition of fish to encompass invertebrates it makes them eligible for greater protection from the Fish and Game Commission, the court wrote.

In 2018, a number of public interest groups petitioned to include four species of bumblebee as endangered species under California’s act - the Crotch bumblebee, the Franklin bumblebee, the Suckley cuckoo bumblebee, and the Western bumblebee.

But in 2020, the Sacramento County Superior Court ruled the “invertebrates” listed in the definition of fish only referred to marine invertebrates, excluding insects such as bumblebees – with the California Fish and Game Commission powerless to list invertebrates under the act.

The most recent ruling though overturned that decision and found “fish” can include bumblebees – at least for the purposes of the California Endangered Species Act.

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“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,” the court stated in its ruling.

The reversal now means bumblebees can be eligible for listing under the California Endangered Species Act.

The victory for conservationists comes after across the US due to climate change.

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Sarina Jepsen, the director of endangered species at the , one of the nonprofits who had been petitioning California to protect the bees, said in a statement: “We are celebrating today’s decision that insects and other invertebrates are eligible for protection under CESA.

“The Court’s decision allows California to protect some of its most endangered pollinators, a step which will contribute to the resilience of the state’s native ecosystems and farms.”