COLUMBUS, Ohio — A prison program funded partly by recycling waste produced at Ohio State football games is helping pay for inmates to raise trout to feed penguins, polar bears and otters at the Columbus Zoo.
The rainbow trout farm that opened Wednesday at the Southeastern Correctional Complex in Lancaster will provide about 300 pounds of frozen trout a month for the zoo’s dozen-plus penguins. Inmates also will provide about 100 pounds of trout a month for the zoo’s polar bears, brown bears and otters.
The farm is being paid for, in part, with proceeds from a prison recycling-sorting program, which takes in waste from Ohio State’s massive stadium, among other sources.
The trout, to be flash frozen at the prison, will replace fish the zoo currently gets from Idaho. The prison partnership calls for smaller trout, from 4 inches to 6 inches long, which is closer to what penguins prefer, said zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters.
The prison eventually hopes to raise bigger trout for the bears and to provide them live to the animals. The prison also hopes to expand the trout program to other Ohio zoos.
The fish are being raised in two long water-filled troughs in a warehouse.
