A fish study now being done on large inland lakes in Northern Michigan by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has triggered a stream of phone calls to Tom Whipp, supervisor of Springvale Township.
One technique the DNR is using in the survey involves catching fish live in nets, tagging them and then releasing them back into the water.
People see the netting going on now out in Pickerel and Crooked lakes and think Native Americans are out there netting fish, a highly controversial issue, Whipp said.
Native Americans can net fish in the Great Lakes, but not in inland lakes.
To find out what is going on, Whipp called Harold Miller, DNR spokesman out of Gaylord.
Miller told Whipp the netting is part of a study announced earlier this year by the DNR that is being done to prepare for a court review of Native American tribes' treaty rights to fish and hunt in inland lakes.