For the past few years, government officials and agricultural groups in California have been fighting over the question: Are bees fish?
The California Court of Appeal for the 3rd District ruled on May 31 that, legally, they are.
At the heart of this issue is the state’s Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the import, export, possession, purchase, sale, or killing of listed species. Roughly 250 plant and animal species are protected by the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
In 2018, environmentalists petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to add four bumblebee species to the list of at-risk plants and animals governed and protected by the CESA. The Commission provided notice in 2019 that the four bumblebee species were candidates for CESA protection.
Birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, plants, and fish are categories of endangered species eligible for protection in California, but insects aren’t. So how did state officials, at the behest of environmental groups, end up getting those bumblebees added?
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By declaring them fish!
