Fish are removed from Lincoln Park's South Pond as part of a $12 million restoration project to restore the lake to a model freshwater habitat. Exotic species including koi and goldfish are being killed before the lake is drained and restocked with native fish.
I thought that this dilemma was cleared up by Cobain et al. in their landmark release. Excerpt : “It’s okay to eat fish because they dont have any feelings...” :)
Seems like such a waste. 12 million is a lot of money to spend on fish when there are so many other problems.
So if you're reading this, be thankful you're not a black crappie or a largemouth bass...Anyone who has ever caught one and watched it flop about on the aluminum floor of a fishing boat can surmise the creature is certainly not enjoying itself...Fish are real different from us. What matters to a fish is not necessarily what matters to us
I'm glad I'm not a fish, I really am.
What matters to me is eating them, flopping or not, which I suspect isn't a fish priority. Their priority is eating other fish, flopping or not.
This is a serious issue, soon to be addressed, I'm sure, by The One and his Chief of Staff, the Godfather of the Great Lakes. Adjacent to the Lincoln Park Pond.
Advocates say Obama will be a Great Lakes friend [godfather of Great Lakes spending $5 bil]
Do reporters have brains?
The real question is, will they vote Democrat after they die
I could understand killing exotic, undesirable species such as carp but weren’t koi and goldfish deliberately stocked in that pond?
It’s sad because koi can live over 200 years. One koi that died in 1957 was born before our country...
What can I say about Illinois? I was born in IL and they do everything wrong there...
This is truly sad. Although the pictures below are not the actual pictures of the pond that was fish-killed or the fish, this is very sad. I will tell you that studies show that within 5 years, the lake will have returned to 50% of it’s previous state. Within 12 years, similar fish will again be swimming in that pond.
The fishing pressure and lack of regulation/enforcement mean that the resource (predator fish) will be over taxed.
Poisoning urban waters and restocking is a primitive solution to the problem.
This pond was so good - I had an angler on a paid guided fishing session on Lincoln Park pond. With 150,000 condos & apartment residents and fishbowls the goldfish will return.
Lastly - native fish is incorrect. The bass was not native to Illinois and came from the East Coast in the late 1800s when this fish was stocked nation-wide. The bass then is also an exotic. Because the bass requires much greater surface area and territory to live, along with much more oxygen to thrive, the bass does not do as well in our urban waters. The goldfish however, requires very little and can live in polluted water in poor conditions. Thus, the lone survivor in a pond gone bad- goldfish & bullheads.
The “native” fish will last a while and be plucked out and the “exotic”, where “exotic” = survivor will again swim in Lincoln Park’s South pond.
If it were my model, I would have kept it nearly the same as it was and tweaked the shoreline for about $2 million. I would have spent the rest of the money on children of homeless or soldiers children who might not have a parent who lives at home.