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Riverwalk signs will educate public about catfish

Ravenswood Media, Inc.

(Above) A channel catfish from a new video produced by Ravenswood Media, Inc., for the conservation group Friends of the Chicago River. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

10-Jan-16 – Friends of the Chicago River wants you to get to know the catfish better.

The non-profit conservation group is working on 25 to 40 metal signs it will install in March along the Chicago Riverwalk to educate passersby about the river and the 70 species of fish, including catfish, that live in it. The signs will be located on the south bank between McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum and O’Brien’s Riverwalk Café.

An estimated 195,000 young catfish have been introduced into the Chicago River since June 10, 2014. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is not just stocking the river with catfish but trying to make life good for them.

Ravenswood Media, Inc. 400 lightweight concrete nesting cavities (left), that to fish look like submerged logs, have been installed in the river at six locations, in spots where fish population was very low.

The nesting cavities also provide hiding places for largemouth bass, sunfish, and other fish species.

There still are not enough catfish in the Chicago River, according to Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, in a video released on Friday. That is why her organization has been working with IDNR to help catfish grow and reproduce in greater numbers.

“The catfish project has an impact on the people who live along the river because it educates them that the river is alive,” says Frisbie (right). Margaret Frisbie

“But it also demonstrates the complexity of our work, that a lot of the stuff that we do takes a long time. So we have to sustain our work and stick to our priorities and just keep chipping away.”

Shot out of pipes from a truck, catfish were most recently added to the river last October. The projects are funded by a $300,000 grant awarded in December 2013 from Chi-Cal Rivers Fund, with the goal of restoring the “health, vitality, and accessibility” of waterways in Chicago as well as the Calumet Region in northwest Indiana.