Ohio bill to pick a state fish swims through Statehouse

Watch a previous NBC4 report on Walleye in Ohio in the video player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A years-long effort inspired by NBC4 viewers and readers to crown the walleye as Ohio's state fish is finally swimming through the Statehouse.

The Ohio House passed House Bill 599 in June with a vote of 93 to 4 to designate sander vitreus, commonly known as the walleye, as the state's fish. Though Ohio has memorialized other symbols, like tomato juice as the official beverage and white trillium as the formal wildflower, the state is one of three along with Indiana and Iowa that remains symbolically fishless.

"The walleye is responsible for about $1 billion in economic activity in our state, is the fish that nest the most charter boats in Ohio, and the Ohio Walleye Trail is the draw of about half of the one million anglers in our state," said Rep. Sean Brennan (D-Parma), the bill's primary sponsor. "Walleye, I cannot think of another that would be better fit to be the official fish of the state, to consider any other fish is a red herring."

About 95 million of the white-bellied fish, also sporting olive and gold, thrive in the cool waters of Lake Erie, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife. In comparison, there are roughly 600,000 white-tailed deer, Ohio's official mammal, across the state. This means Lake Erie holds close to 158 times more walleye than the entire state's deer population, Brennan said.

The walleye is personal for Ohioans like Ridgeville resident Salvatore Piazza, who submitted testimony for the bill's committee hearing earlier this summer, and argued the world envies Ohio's 10,000-square mile Lake Erie coastline. Piazza recalled childhood memories of walleye fishing with relatives, and later boating adventures with friends.

"The joy of one in our group getting the big walleye and just being able to be out in the great outdoors with my buddies are memories I will hold on to forever," Piazza testified. "It is high time to come together and pass what is long overdue. To finally be the ones to designate the walleye as the official state fish."

Now, H.B. 599 is advancing to the Ohio Senate for consideration. Still, previous legislation to commemorate the walleye floundered in the Statehouse, an effort that was supercharged when NBC4, using responses from its viewers and readers, proposed a handful of species competing for the title of Ohio's state fish in October 2021.

Once the walleye emerged as victor, NBC4 contacted every state lawmaker whose district borders Lake Erie to inquire whether a bill naming it as Ohio’s official fish could swim its way through the Statehouse. Former state Sen. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) volunteered and agreed to introduce a bill bestowing the designation.

Fedor's Senate Bill 271 and its counterpart House Bill 484 -- which lawmakers considered over a spread of smoked walleye cheese dip and crackers -- died in the water, failing to receive a vote in either chamber of the General Assembly by the end of 2022.

It was not the first time a state fish bill has flopped in the Statehouse. The decades-long debate spans back to the 1980s, when walleye anglers in northern Ohio battled bass anglers down south about which of the two species should grace the list of state symbols, according to a 2003 article by The Morning Journal of Lorain.

Brennan, along with H.B. 599's other primary sponsor Rep. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron), revived the effort this general assembly when a resident in his district reached out and advocated for the walleye as Ohio's top fish. The pair noted the walleye's history in Ohio culture, from the Toledo walleye hockey team to the city of Port Clinton's time-honored tradition of dropping a 20-foot, 600-pound fiberglass walleye adorned in LED lights to mark the New Year.

"While not just a blessing for us financially, this fish is also a bless for us culturally. Thousands of hours are spent by Ohioans and non-Ohioans alike, enjoying this safe and sustainable hobby," said Swearingen at another committee hearing for the bill. "When anglers in-state and out-of-state alike think of Ohio fishing, they think of Lake Erie walleye fishing."

H.B. 599 will next receive additional committee hearings open to the public before the legislation is voted on in the Senate.