Progressive Pets

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No.

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Smile attempt?

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One of those days...

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Awwww

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First one I saw, I thought was a Gernam Shepard. Just standing like it belonged on Mira Mesa Blvd.
These are by the 805 on Miramar

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INSIDER
California court rules that bees are a type of fish in order to protect them under the state's endangered species act
Mia Jankowicz
Wed, June 1, 2022, 8:45 AM
A bee hovers over a yellow flower in close-up. Overlaid text and an arrow marks it as "a fish"
Image for illustration purposes only. Bee pictured is not Californian.Robert Pickett/Getty Images
Judges ruled on Tuesday that bumble bees can be classed as fish under California environmental laws.

This unlocks protections for the state's four endangered bumble bee species.

The ruling clarifies the state's confusing classification in its environmental protections.

A trio of judges in California said on Tuesday that bees can be legally classed as a type of fish as part of a ruling that brings added conservation protections for the endangered species

"The issue presented here is whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish," the judges wrote in their ruling. And, they concluded, it does.

Formerly, the problem for bee-lovers — and lovers of all Californian terrestrial invertebrates — was down to the way protected animals have been classified in the state's laws.

Although four different bee species were classified as endangered in 2018, land invertebrates are not explicitly protected under the state's Endangered Species Act (CESA), which protects endangered "native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant."

But CESA's Fish and Game Code, which establishes the basis on which plants and animals are protected, defines "fish" as "a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals."

Given that many of the above marine creatures aren't even fish, California has been arguing ever since about whether "invertebrates" here should apply to bees.

The appeal overturns an earlier ruling in November 2020 that was backed by major agricultural groups, Law & Crime reported. There, the judge argued that "invertebrates" in the Fish and Game Code's "fish" definition only applied to marine invertebrates, like anemones or sea urchins.

But on Tuesday's appeal, the judges argued that they are obliged to "liberally" interpret CESA's terms in order to make sure it can be effective.

"Although the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species," the judges said, legislative jargon in this case could be justified in expanding the definition to include bees.