YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District will continue taking orders for fish until May 8.

The fish will be handed out at the Canfield Fairgrounds 1 to 3 p.m. May 12, if the stay-at-home order in Ohio is lifted.

“We will do whatever we need to do to ensure the safety of the public we serve and our employees,” district spokeswoman Kelli Hulea said. “We will ensure that we follow proper safety protocol.”

She said there will not be a problem obtaining the fish to fill the orders. The district purchases from Fender’s Fish Hatchery in Baltic. The company assists 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties’ fish sales, and is considered a farm producing a food source. That exempts Fender’s from the COVID-19 business closing order.

“The SWCDs have been working with Fender’s Fish Hatchery for over 40 years,” Kathleen Vrable-Bryan, district administrator for Mahoning County, said. “I have worked here at Mahoning SWCD since 2006, and we have held fish sales with Fender’s twice a year since I have been here.”

On the receiving end of the annual fish sale are a wide variety of Mahoning County residents. They range from small backyard koi ponds to 14-acre farm ponds.

“We have helped stock them all,” Vrable-Bryan said.

She said a lot of local sportsman clubs will use the fish purchases to stock a recreational pond and then have a fishing tournament for children.

Others purchase specific species to help control invasive aquatic plants.

“While we promote and encourage native in everything we do, we decided to sell koi as we received high volumes of calls from residents who were experiencing duckweed issues in their ponds,” Vrable-Bryan said. “Koi can be used as a natural way to control duckweed as they like to eat duckweed. Duckweed can easily become a nuisance species when conditions allow them to excessively proliferate. As a reminder we are all about water quality improvement and protection.”

Orders for Japanese koi, white amur, largemouth bass, bluegill, hybrid bluegill, channel catfish, redear sunfish, yellow perch and fathead minnows can be placed with the district office by calling 330-740-7995 or by fax at 330-259-1075.

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