this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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To add on for anyone who is lazy like me, the thing where Google summarizes says California has classified bees as fish under an environmental protection act. According to the first result (Reddit) it's because fish is a catch all term in that law. Instead of listing all the animals they just use fish. Because fish,bees, and the other animals are all invertebrates.
Now whoever reads this has three Lemmy comments, a reddit thread reference, and an ai overview reference as some solid sources
Some fish are, yeah
What about starfishes? Checkmate.
Source?
Because all the sources I've come across say that "fish" is not a monophylatic classification and is essentially arbitrary.
... and Wikipedia states that the category of "fish" is paraphylatic, meaning that it is defined by convention rather than 'fact' and its boundaries can be argued, since it excludes some of the descendants of fish.
also, as pointed out by another commenter, we use the word fish to describe lots of things that are not included in this definition, like starfish and crayfish.
Having recently learned about trees, I actually don't think I know what a tree is. at least, not enough to create a reasonable, non-blurry definition of "tree."
You've defined fish as being vertebrates, and as such I cannot find an invertebrate that fits that definition. But what you can't do is just say the word "fish" and expect me to know what you mean - you have to provide a definition, and I could provide a different definition in a different context and neither of us would really be "wrong."
If you did just say "fish" without providing a definition, I would be tempted to either exclude sharks or include crabs, depending on context.
What a nicely packaged little subthread to come across while decompressing after a super busy day, lol!