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Bees can be classified as ‘fish’, rules US judge in win for environmental groups
The appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling for seven agricultural groups who argued that the CESA expressly protects only “birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and plants.”
Bumblebees can be legally classified as fish, ruled a California appeals court in the US, making the insects eligible for protection under the state law. The court's verdict came as a win for environmental groups and the state’s Fish and Game Commission who were attempting to list four bumblebee species under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
The court ruled that CESA can be used to protect threatened or endangered invertebrates, including four species of imperilled native bumblebees.
“It is a great day for California’s bumble bees. Today’s decision confirms that California Endangered Species Act protections apply to all of our state’s imperiled native species and is critical to protecting our state’s renown biodiversity,” Pamela Flick, from Defenders of Wildlife, said in a release.
“Bees and other pollinators are integral to healthy ecosystems and the crucial pollination services they provide serve all of us, making this decision exponentially more consequential,” she added.
The appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling for agricultural groups who argued that the CESA expressly protects only “birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and plants” – not insects.
Writing for the Sacramento-based appeals court, Associate Justice Ronald Robie said that while “fish” is “commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature … is not so limited.”
Robie further noted that CESA itself does not define “fish,” but the law is part of the California Fish and Game Code, whose definition includes any “mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate (or) amphibian,” reported Reuters. All those categories “encompass terrestrial and aquatic species,” and the state legislature has already approved the listing of at least one land-based mollusk, the court said.
“Accordingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like each of the four bumblebee species, may be listed as an endangered or threatened species,” Robie wrote, joined by Acting Presiding Justice Cole Blease and Associate Justice Andrea Lynn Hoch.
(With inputs from Reuters)
