July 18, 2009 – After spending the winter in warmer water downstream, the Fish Hotel has returned to the main stem of the Chicago River across from Marina City. Back since May, the floating fish habitat is on the south bank of the river near the Dearborn Street bridge.

“The same structure gets re-vamped and improved every year based on the previous year’s observations,” says Ozana Balan King, Program Manager for Friends of the Chicago River. “It is moved every winter to the South Branch to protect it. It spends winters…near [Midwest Generation’s Fisk Station, a power plant on West Cermak Road], where the water is quite a bit warmer and does not freeze.”

The freezing and thawing of the top of the Chicago River, according to King, could damage the buoys and sink the structure.

The Fish Hotel is a project by Friends of the Chicago River to restore the river into a more vibrant ecosystem. The habitat started out in 2005 just west of the Michigan Avenue bridge but was moved in anticipation of the Riverwalk expansion.

(Above) Fish Hotel, as seen from south plaza of Marina City. (Click on image to view larger version.)

The three-level hotel includes floating and submerged plants, brush, logs, etc., as well as cribs at various depths for fish to eat and sleep in. Nets around the hotel keep water fowl from eating the plants.

 Related story: Fish Hotel winters in warmer water