“‘Although 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 is not so limited,’ said the court in its ruling.
The California Endangered Species Act was designed to protect ‘native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile or plant.’
Notably, invertebrates are absent from the list of protected species.
But in a loophole for insects, mollusks and other spineless creatures falling under the umbrella term ‘invertebrate,’ the act itself defines a fish as ‘a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian or part, spawn or ovum of any of those animals.’
Expanding the definition of fish to include invertebrates makes them eligible for greater protection from the Fish and Game Commission, wrote the court.”
This example of what California courts will do ignores the obvious role for the Legislature. If it is helpful for the California Fish and Game Commission to protect bumblebees, the Legislature should simply amend the Commission’s jurisdiction to include insects. The role of courts is to apply the law as written, not to rewrite the law.
My wife’s dill pickles are closely related to sea cucumbers and are invertebrate. Perhaps we could get them declared endangered.
Friends of ours who are serious apiarists say that the native bee population in California specifically and the rest of the nation in general us suffering a serious decline that could be a serious threat to agriculture. I’m not a politician, but classifying bees as fish seems more like a desperate measure to get around flawed legislation that may be all but impossible to correct. I thought this article was interesting.
https://www.xerces.org/press/california-supreme-court-lets-decision-stand-that-bees-can-be-protected-by-california
I wonder if it doesn’t make more sense to talk about how to improve how the legislative process works so that when obvious oversites and errors become apparent once a law is established and tested by a large enough percentage of the population they can efficiently be corrected.