April 8, 2015 — Investigators in McDowell County say someone tampered with the equipment at a local fish hatchery, killing approximately 150,000 rainbow trout. The McDowell News reported that Armstrong Fish Hatchery superintendent Michael Anderson told the sheriff's office that someone turned a valve at the facility sometime Saturday afternoon. Turning the valve diverted fresh water away from the hatchery, where more than tens of thousands of rainbow trout were living. With no fresh water coming into the hatchery, the rainbow trout couldn't survive and suffocated.
Officials with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission say they will try to minimize the effects upon fishermen in Western North Carolina. David Deaton, fish production supervisor with the commission, said the trout would have been used to stock area streams and rivers for this year and next.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at WCNC