Fish living in hole in road relocated to new homes

An unlikely fish pond in Detroit is no more. Crews from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department pumped water out of the hole on Hull Street near McNichols on Detroit's east side on Tuesday morning. The fish have been relocated. Sonia "Auntie Na" Brown, a Detroit resident who operates Auntie Na's Outreach Program, says the fish - carp, gold fish, cat fish and blue gill - were caught at Palmer Park by children in her youth program during field trips over the last two months. She said the kids were "so proud of their accomplishments they wanted to keep their fish."



The idea to relocate the fish to the hole on Hull - it's been there for years filling with water and often overflowing according to Brown - came from Auntie Na volunteer Isiah "Mr. Zeke" James, who lives with his wife in one of two occupied homes on Hull. Brown says James cleaned algae out of the 14-foot-long, foot-plus-deep rectangular hole cut out with heavy machinery, and the fish were transferred over last two months. The purpose was to beatify the blighted neighbourhood filled with burned-out homes, overgrown empty lots and dumped trash, TVs carpet and other furniture.




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James' wife, Yvette Pugh, said: "My husband put them out there just for him to watch. We didn't mean no harm to nobody, or trying to bash the city, because they did that. We didn't create that ... They just didn't close it back up so we turned it into a pond." A water worker at the scene on Tuesday said he's not sure how genuine the motive to beautify the neighbourhood really is and theorised there were ulterior motives to draw public criticism to the city and get the hole repaired. About 10 of the fish were relocated to a bath tub turned aquarium at Auntie Na's on Yellowstone in west Detroit.



Others, some had spawned and had babies, were taken to a local pond. The Detroit water workers said the hole was created by DTE Energy, potentially to reach a gas main below. DTE spokeswoman Erica Donerson said an investigation into who created the hole and who was responsible to repair it is on going. "While we are investigating ... we are working collaboratively with the city to make sure the hole is repaired," she said. "If our crew is not there now, they should be there shortly to fill the hole."