In a move that could allow a broad range of insects to be considered for endangered species status, the California Supreme Court found that bumblebees can be protected under the law as a type of fish.
The decision, which may carry deep consequences for the state’s agriculture industry, focuses on the arcane wording and complicated legal history of the California Endangered Species Act — a precursor to the federal law.
The court said late Wednesday that it would not hear arguments over whether the California Fish and Game Commission can consider granting protections to a number of bumblebee species whose populations are in steady decline. For the last three years, state almond growers, builders and pesticide companies had been arguing that bumblebees were exempt from listing because the state conservation law does not mention insects.
In writing for the court, however, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said that even though the law does not use the word “insects,” sections of the law suggest that invertebrates may be grouped under the category of fish. She also suggested that the Legislature “is in a position to make whatever statutory amendments it may regard as necessary or useful” to clarify such ambiguities in the endangered species act.
Cantil-Sakauye also warned against misconstruing the decision as “an affirmative determination by this court that under the law, bumblebees are fish.”
Wednesday’s decision was quickly hailed by conservation groups.
“We are elated with the California Supreme Court decision,” said Sarina Jepsen, endangered species director with the Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “Now, some of California’s most endangered pollinators may be saved from extinction.”
CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images
Bees gather pollen from a palm flower in Los Angeles on June 28, 2022.
The dispute arose after a coalition of conservation groups led by the Xerces Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Food Safety in 2018 submitted a petition to protect four species: the western, Franklin’s, Suckley’s cuckoo and Crotch’s bumblebees.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted to begin the listing process, but several agricultural and pesticide industry interests — including the Almond Alliance of California, the California Association of Pest Control Advisors and the California Building Industry Association — challenged its decision.
They worried that listing the four species would open the door to protections for any of the more than 1,000 species of native bumblebees in California, as well as countless other insects.
The controversy does not involve scientifically cultured honeybees that California’s agricultural communities depend on to pollinate and produce a third of the nation’s vegetables and most of the world’s almonds.
However, the agricultural industry has complained that some of the native bees considered for listing by the commission overlap with important agricultural areas where tilling, planting and harvesting activities could expose farmers and their workers to liability if protected bees are killed.
For example, the California Building Industry Association, in court documents, suggested that the right to define terrestrial invertebrates as fish could “effectively make a criminal of anyone who has ever swatted a fly, run over an ant or eaten an aphid hidden in their broccoli without a ‘fishing license.'”
In Almond Alliance vs. California Fish and Game Commission, the groups complained that the endangered species act explicitly allows the government to designate native species of “bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile or plant,” but excludes invertebrates such as bees.
The commission argued, however, that a separate section of the state fish and game code defines fish to include “wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, or amphibian.”
A Superior Court trial sided with the industry groups.
In 2021, the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic intervened on behalf of the petitioners, who appealed.
In May, the trial court ruling was reversed by a California 3rd District Court of Appeal opinion that found the state Legislature defined the term “fish” as “a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals.”
Therefore, the endangered species act’s definition of “fish” is a legal term of art that extends beyond the commonly understood meaning of “fish.”
Whether the highly contested conservation law will ever be reopened for an overhaul by combative stakeholders remains to be seen. First passed in 1970, the California Endangered Species Act was repealed and replaced by an updated version in 1984 and amended in 1997.
Word of the court’s decision set the world of native bee aficionados buzzing with rare, encouraging news.
It is a world that seems by its very nature to be pastoral and calm but which is honeycombed with problems, including climate change, competition from cultured honeybees, shrinking habitat and pesticides.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
Photo by Martin Schutt/picture alliance via Getty Images
Bees can communicate and make decisions by dancing.
When a honeybee scouts out and inspects a new nest it uses a waggle dance to advertise and debate its merits. The better the site, the longer and harder the bee dances. If another bee bumps into a dancing bee, she will go off to inspect the site and if she likes it, she, too, will waggle.
Eventually, the dynamics of the waggle dancing causes about 20 to 30 bees to agree on the best nest site, and they communicate their decision to the rest of the swarm by making high-pitched sounds and by buzzing their wings among the other bees.
Photo by Martin Schutt/picture alliance via Getty Images
Bees can communicate and make decisions by dancing.
When a honeybee scouts out and inspects a new nest it uses a waggle dance to advertise and debate its merits. The better the site, the longer and harder the bee dances. If another bee bumps into a dancing bee, she will go off to inspect the site and if she likes it, she, too, will waggle.
Eventually, the dynamics of the waggle dancing causes about 20 to 30 bees to agree on the best nest site, and they communicate their decision to the rest of the swarm by making high-pitched sounds and by buzzing their wings among the other bees.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
Honeybees in Vietnam and other parts of Asia are threatened by predatory species of giant hornet that attack bee colonies, killing the adults defending the nest and preying on the young bees. In particular, the voracious hornet species Vespa soror is capable of obliterating the hive within hours.
To ward off such attacks, the bees have been observed collecting fresh animal feces and smearing it around the entrance to their hive. The researchers, who published their findings last year, call it "fecal spotting." The study team believe the poop repels the predatory hornets (which are similar to murder hornets) from the nest by reducing time hornets spend attempting to breach the nest.
"Fecal spotting stands out as extraordinary for several reasons. It marks the first report of honey bees of any species foraging for materials that are not derived from plants or water-based fluids. It is also the first clear-cut example of honey bees using a tool in nature," the study said.
Honeybees also signal an imminent attack by making a chilling warning noise.
Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
Honeybees in Vietnam and other parts of Asia are threatened by predatory species of giant hornet that attack bee colonies, killing the adults defending the nest and preying on the young bees. In particular, the voracious hornet species Vespa soror is capable of obliterating the hive within hours.
To ward off such attacks, the bees have been observed collecting fresh animal feces and smearing it around the entrance to their hive. The researchers, who published their findings last year, call it "fecal spotting." The study team believe the poop repels the predatory hornets (which are similar to murder hornets) from the nest by reducing time hornets spend attempting to breach the nest.
"Fecal spotting stands out as extraordinary for several reasons. It marks the first report of honey bees of any species foraging for materials that are not derived from plants or water-based fluids. It is also the first clear-cut example of honey bees using a tool in nature," the study said.
Honeybees also signal an imminent attack by making a chilling warning noise.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
AP file
In the 1980s, "yellow rain" -- tiny splotches of yellow found on jungle foliage in Laos and Cambodia -- were thought to be the residue of chemical weapons. Refugees said that the yellow rain caused illness and death. The allegations prompted the United States to accuse what was then the Soviet Union and its allies of chemical warfare.
Bee experts later found that the yellow dots were excretions by massive swarms of wild honeybees.
AP file
In the 1980s, "yellow rain" -- tiny splotches of yellow found on jungle foliage in Laos and Cambodia -- were thought to be the residue of chemical weapons. Refugees said that the yellow rain caused illness and death. The allegations prompted the United States to accuse what was then the Soviet Union and its allies of chemical warfare.
Bee experts later found that the yellow dots were excretions by massive swarms of wild honeybees.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
AP file
Plants produce dazzling flowers laden with nectar to attract pollinators but what's an impatient, hungry bumblebee to do when those flowers haven't yet bloomed?
When pollen is scarce, bumblebees damaged tomato and mustard plant leaves in a unique way that resulted in the plant flowering up to 30 days earlier than unnibbled plants, scientists in Switzerland and France found.
For bees, the pollen is a protein source they need to raise their young.
However, warmer temperatures as a result of the climate crisis means that bees are waking up earlier after hibernating for the winter to find the flowers they need for food haven't yet bloomed. Flowering time, which relies on exposure to light, is less affected by climate change. This creates a mismatch that can leaves bees short of food early in spring.
AP file
Plants produce dazzling flowers laden with nectar to attract pollinators but what's an impatient, hungry bumblebee to do when those flowers haven't yet bloomed?
When pollen is scarce, bumblebees damaged tomato and mustard plant leaves in a unique way that resulted in the plant flowering up to 30 days earlier than unnibbled plants, scientists in Switzerland and France found.
For bees, the pollen is a protein source they need to raise their young.
However, warmer temperatures as a result of the climate crisis means that bees are waking up earlier after hibernating for the winter to find the flowers they need for food haven't yet bloomed. Flowering time, which relies on exposure to light, is less affected by climate change. This creates a mismatch that can leaves bees short of food early in spring.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
AP file
A cave painting in Spain thought to be 8,000 years old depicts a human gathering honey from a ladder. Traces of beeswax on pottery also suggest that early farmers kept bees 9,000 years ago. Honey has also been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
Honey was likely a rare treat in a prehistoric diet that had few sweet foods, and it could have had medicinal uses. Beeswax could have been used to make pots waterproof or as a glue.
Today, honey may offer fresh hope in the fight against antibiotic resistance. It contains natural antibiotics to help the body battle infection. Scientists are working on ways to make the sticky substance easier to apply on wounds, and it could be used in surgery, war zones and our own homes.
AP file
A cave painting in Spain thought to be 8,000 years old depicts a human gathering honey from a ladder. Traces of beeswax on pottery also suggest that early farmers kept bees 9,000 years ago. Honey has also been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
Honey was likely a rare treat in a prehistoric diet that had few sweet foods, and it could have had medicinal uses. Beeswax could have been used to make pots waterproof or as a glue.
Today, honey may offer fresh hope in the fight against antibiotic resistance. It contains natural antibiotics to help the body battle infection. Scientists are working on ways to make the sticky substance easier to apply on wounds, and it could be used in surgery, war zones and our own homes.
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6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day
AP file
The vast majority of bees feed on pollen and nectar, but some species have evolved to feast on meat, substituting dead animal carcasses for flower meadows.
Vulture bees in Costa Rica have guts rich in acid-loving bacteria similar to those found in hyenas and other animals that feed on carrion, scientists at the University of California-Riverside, Columbia University and Cornell University discovered last year.
Their research involved setting up 16 traps baited with 50 grams (1.8 ounces) of raw chicken dangling from branches about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) above the ground. Though vulture bees feed on flesh, their honey is still sweet and edible, the researchers said.
AP file
The vast majority of bees feed on pollen and nectar, but some species have evolved to feast on meat, substituting dead animal carcasses for flower meadows.
Vulture bees in Costa Rica have guts rich in acid-loving bacteria similar to those found in hyenas and other animals that feed on carrion, scientists at the University of California-Riverside, Columbia University and Cornell University discovered last year.
Their research involved setting up 16 traps baited with 50 grams (1.8 ounces) of raw chicken dangling from branches about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) above the ground. Though vulture bees feed on flesh, their honey is still sweet and edible, the researchers said.
