UPDATED: Authorities want to know who wasted nearly 400 fish near Gillette

UPDATE, 5 p.m. Thursday: The Game and Fish department announced Thursday that the man responsible had turned himself in.

Someone dumped close 400 fish at a spot near Gillette and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department wants to know who.

The wasted, rotting fish — which included at least 368 crappie — were found east of Gillette outside the Collins Heights Subdivision on Monday. Some were so decomposed that Game Warden Dustin Kirsch couldn't identity the species. None of the edible portions of the fish had been removed.

A crappie fry is shown at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in this 2014 photo. Photo courtesy Spencer Neuharth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

“This is the largest wanton waste of game fish I have witnessed,” Kirsch said in a news release from the Game and Fish Department.

He believes the fish had likely been dumped about three or four days before they were discovered.

A concerned individual has offered a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for dumping the game fish.

The Game and Fish Department is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact Kirsch at 307-687-7157, the STOP POACHING hotline at 1-877-943-3847 or the Sheridan Regional Office at 307-672-7418.

Callers can remain anonymous.

fish, Wyoming Game and Fish