Concerned for the plight of bumble bees, environmental organizations petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list four bumble bee species--the western bumble bee, Franklin's bumble bee, Crotch's bumble bee and the Suckley cuckoo bumble bee--as "endangered" under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). There was only one problem: The CESA provides for protection of "native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant which is in serious danger of becoming extinct." Notice anything missing? There is no mention of insects, or even invertebrates, let alone bees.
Concerned about the potential economic impact of listing bumble bees as "endangered species," various agricultural groups sued to stop the Commission from listing the bees, arguing that the Commission lacks the authority to list bumble bees (or other insects) as "endangered" under the the CESA. A trial court initially agreed with the agricultural groups. Today, however, an appellate court sided with the environmental groups, concluding that bumble bees could be "endangered species" under the CESA because they qualify under the Act's definition of "fish."
In Almond Alliance of California v. Fish and Game Commission, the court concluded that "[a]lthough the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish in section 45 [of the CESA] is not so limited." Because the definition of "fish" includes invertebrates, the court concluded, and bees are invertebrates (albeit not of the aquatic kind), bees are covered by the CESA. This interpretation, the court argued, was also consistent with prior case law adopting an expansive definition of the CESA's provisions and the statute's purpose and legislative history.
