SACRAMENTO—Four species of bumble bees are now considered fish under the California Endangered Species Act, a state appeals court ruled.
California’s Third Appellate District Court of Appeals ruled May 31 the state law protecting endangered and threatened species can add the bumblebee, a terrestrial invertebrate, to the list under the classification of fish.
“The term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the [term] employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish … is not so limited,” Associate Judge Ronald Robie wrote for the appeals court.
State law lists protected species in separate divisions: bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant—leaving out bees and other insects….