in order to protect them under the state's endangered species act.
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."
We’re moving beyond the point of having written laws, enacted by our legislatures.