Ceci n'est pas un poisson.

Not a fish.

This will be a considerably shorter post than usual for Curmie, but I can’t just let this go.

The Sacramento Bee (who else?) reports that the state of California has determined that bees qualify as fish. 

This all stems from a series of bills designed to protect endangered species.  So far, so good, right?  Well, the legislation specifies “a native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile or plant.”  Notice that bumblebees, or indeed insects in general, don’t qualify under that rubric.  But, given the need to protect pollinators and the disastrous effect some pesticides have had on bee populations in general, it appears to have been someone’s bright idea to allow for their protection by including not merely snails and similar creatures, but bees, under the category of “fish,” since they are invertebrates (!).

Of course, as anyone who passed high school biology (or, probably, 4^th grade science) knows, fish aren’t invertebrates.  Curmie can’t tell whether the California officials are that ignorant or simply convinced that people will decide that since their deception is for a good cause, no one will care.  The obvious solution—getting the legislature to include insects and other invertebrates in the wording of the act in question—never seems to have occurred to anyone.

California has long been the bête noire of the American right, who often make themselves look foolish in the process.  This is not one of these times.  Calling bees fish because it is convenient to do so is stupid.  And little Johnny, not the brightest star in the firmament, is already appealing his Biology grade.

Sigh.