ODNR Division of Wildlife to restock Lake Glacier with rainbow trout
YOUNGSTOWN
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife next week will conduct its annual restocking of Lake Glacier with rainbow trout.
For many years, the wildlife division has stocked that lake (and many others in the state) for recreational fishing.
“There are hundreds of people that show up for the opportunity to fish these 10- to 14-inch rainbow trout,” said Steve Avery, MetroParks planning and natural resources director.
Some area wildlife advocates have called into question that practice this year, however, given that the MetroParks experienced a massive fish kill in one of its lakes last summer.
“I know that many people do not put value on the lives of fish. But part of the issue that we had considered was that the stocking of these fish and placing them in potentially deadly waters could have an ugly outcome again,” said Angie McCullough Bradian, a member of advocacy group Save the Wildlife in Mill Creek Park.
“It would not hurt for the park to take a break from the stocking. Watching [fish] suffer and die last year was not a fond memory for many people who are sensitive to the suffering of animals,” she said, adding she also is concerned about the safety of eating fish caught in the lake. “It just doesn’t feel like a responsible move.”
MetroParks officials, however, do not draw a connection between the two events, nor do they believe the 2,500 fish the wildlife division will put in Lake Glacier on Thursday are at great risk of meeting a similar fate to the fish that died in Lake Newport due to insufficient levels of dissolved oxygen in the water.
Avery said another fish kill is not a concern “specific to the restocking.”
“Their time frame in our lake is pretty short from the time the lake is stocked until the majority are fished out,” he said. He said that stocked fish typically are fished out of the lake in a matter of weeks.
“It’s not like we’re trying to restock the fish population, or that they’re going to be growing on their own and reproducing. That’s not going to happen in our streams and lakes,” he said.
He also noted evidence that suggested last June’s fish kill was confined to Lake Newport. That event later was determined to be the result of a combined storm and sanitary sewer overflow from the city’s system during heavy rains, which depleted the dissolved oxygen in the water.
Tara Cioffi, environmental health director for the city health district, said there is no reason to believe that fish caught from Lake Glacier poses a health risk of any kind.
Those who wish to fish at Lake Glacier must have a fishing license. There is a limit of five fish per person, per day.