What? In California, Bumble Bees Are Classified As Fish

I've never been allergic to bee stings. Granted, whenever I did get stung, it would be just one or two bees. No big deal, just waiting for the stinging to go away.

But, a couple of summers ago, I was stung about eight times by Yellow Jacket bees, and that sent my body over the edge, with a couple of convulsions and a trip to the hospital. That wasn't fun.

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When it occurred (while at camp), I ran into my camper and told my wife I had been stung by several bees. Now if we lived in California, would I have said I was just stung several times by a species of fish?

Yes, you read that correctly. Well, it would depend more specifically if I were stung by a certain type of bee. I happened to read a post from WNEP-TV Scranton, on the subject of verifying whether or not it's true that the State of California ruled that bees are classified as fish.

The WNEP-TV post refers to the Verify This website, and in fact, in California, it was ruled in court that bees have been classified as fish since a ruling in 2019.  But, only for a specific conservation law.

The State of California Fish and Game Commission states that certain types of bees are on the endangered list, including the Crotch bumble bee, Franklin’s bumble bee, Suckley cuckoo bumble bee, and Western bumble bee.

To keep them safe from pesticides, the Game Commission did their homework and found a logical reason why these bees can be classified as fish. The courts agreed. So there you go, next time you are in California and see a bumble bee, you can legally say, "Look, there's a creature from the fish species."

via WNEP-TV, Verify This, California Fish and Game Commission