The goldfish and koi started surrendering to the surface around Halloween. Bass, crappie, catfish and the distinctive sunfish/bluegill hybrids that inhabited the pond for 140 years followed. Soon the 5.2 acre South Pond in Chicago’s Lincoln Park sported a slick of shiny, golden and still moving fish, kind of like a macabre woman’s drink.
It has been ten years since the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) deliberately laced the Lincoln Park pond with the South American poison Rotenone to “restore” the water body into a “model Illinois freshwater habitat.” It would be impractical to relocate “thousands or tens of thousands of fish,” explained DNR spokesman Chris McCloud at the time.
