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Two days before the first visitors come through the gates of the Minnesota State Fair, the grounds welcomed another group of guests: hundreds of live, native fish.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocked its popular fish pond Tuesday morning. During the run of the fair from Thursday through Labor Day, fairgoers can see the rare paddlefish and prehistoric lake sturgeon, plus a few dozen more species.
DNR hatchery manager Genevieve Furtner was on site to oversee Tuesday’s stocking operation.
“It’s always quite the fanfare,” Furtner said.
Dozens of DNR staff helped scoop fish out of aerated tanks on the backs of trucks and pass them into the pond. Furtner said it takes so many people, that the DNR often recruits volunteers from its non-fish-related ranks — outreach interns and forestry staff donned waders and helped wrangle the fish.
“One of the blessings of fish move day is it kind of is a really enjoyable day for everybody in the DNR,” Furtner said.
The work starts before moving day, at the pond where the fish vacation for the rest of the year. Staff start lowering the water level in the holding pond about a week before the move, to make it shallow enough to walk through and net fish.
The DNR has been bringing fish to the fair for 120 years. Some of the longest-living fish — such as the lake sturgeons — have been coming to the fair for decades.
“There are fish here that you might not be able to experience very easily otherwise in your day-to-day lives, so getting to come here and check those fish out is a really great sight,” Furtner said.
Fairgoers can learn more about the fish at talks by DNR staff, scheduled several times a day during the fair.
After Labor Day, the fish go back into the trucks for a ride back to their holding pond, where they stay to quarantine from wild fish — to limit the spread of any diseases. DNR staff keep the pond location a secret, to protect the rare fish from possible poachers.
Furtner said she stops by the State Fair pond most days — even when she’s technically off-duty.
“I can’t not,” she said. “I have to see what’s going on. I just want to make sure that the fish are happy and healthy and showing off the best of the best.”
English (US) ·