N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission News Releases

RALEIGH, N.C. (Sept. 5, 2007) – Despite a large fish kill at Armstrong State Fish Hatchery last month, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission anticipates fulfilling all of its trout stocking requirements for this season.

Too much heat and too little rain killed more than 103,000 brown and rainbow trout being raised at the cold-water fish hatchery located in McDowell County. The majority of these fish were scheduled for stocking in 2008.

However, the agency’s other two trout hatcheries, which have not had any substantial fish losses, have produced enough trout so that all stockings planned for the upcoming fall delayed-harvest season and for the 2008 stocking season should continue as scheduled.

“We always build in a buffer to account for some fish mortality, so we plan to move fish among the fish hatcheries in order to make up for fish that we’ve lost,” said Kyle Briggs, fish production coordinator for the Commission. “We’ve also contacted Erwin National Fish Hatchery to get extra trout eggs for this year so that we can grow out and stock waters next summer.”

Trout thrive in cold, fast-moving water, so they are sensitive to high water temperatures and low water flows. However, stream-dwelling trout are able to survive poor weather conditions better than trout housed in a hatchery for two reasons: they are found in far less densities in streams and they can move up or downstream where conditions may be more favorable.

“The good news for stream-dwelling trout is that the drought should have no long-lasting impacts on those populations,” Briggs said. “It’s a different story, however, for trout in a hatchery environment.”

In order to keep hatchery-housed trout alive during periods of low-water flow and high temperatures, hatchery personnel add more oxygen to the water and recirculate the water to provide more flow to raceways. Additional oxygen and recirculated water increase the dissolved oxygen in the water, which helps keep fish alive longer.

“Most of the time, these measures are enough to keep the trout alive until conditions improve,” Briggs said. “Unfortunately, we have seen the water temperatures in the hatchery steadily rise into the mid-to-upper 70s, and there’s not a whole lot we can do under those conditions.”

This isn’t the first time Commission-owned fish hatcheries have sustained major fish losses due to the weather. In 2004, Armstrong, the Bobby N. Setzer and Marion hatcheries lost more than 100,000 trout after Hurricanes Frances and Ivan caused massive flooding in the mountains. Still, trout stockings the following year remained unaffected.

Despite the hot, dry summer, Briggs is cautiously optimistic about the trout stockings for 2008.

“There is no question that the drought has had an effect on our hatchery system that it will take time to recover from,” Briggs added. “As long as we see a return to normal rainfall and temperatures, we should be able to absorb this loss and continue our operations as planned with no reduction in stocking numbers for the 2008 trout stocking season.”

For information on fishing in North Carolina’s public, inland waters, including Designated Public Mountain Trout Waters, visit the fishing page.