SAULT STE. MARIE - A Garden Peninsula commercial fisherman has paid the required fines in connection with gill net citations from this summer; as a result of the court payment, his tribal fishing license will not be suspended.

Wade Jensen, of Fairport, was cited by a law enforcement officer from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians on June 4 in connection with four miles of unmarked and unattended gill nets in Lake Michigan.

Officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources found the nets in Lake Michigan about five miles east of the Garden Peninsula. The commercial fishing nets contained thousands of pounds of rotting fish.

Jensen, a tribal-licensed commercial fishermen, pleaded guilty to the two charges during a hearing from the tribal center in Manistique teleconferenced to tribal court in the Sault on Sept. 8. He told the court he was unable to tend to the nets for three weeks because of two deaths in his family and because he was sick.

Jensen was transported to the hearing in Manistique from Delta County Jail, where he was serving a one-year sentence since June 27 for unlawfully conspiring to buy and sell fish taken without a commercial fishing license in 2009.

During the teleconferenced hearing, Chief Judge Jocelyn Fabry ordered Jensen to pay $300 in fines on the two gill net civil infractions. If the money was not paid within 30 days, the judge ruled Jensen's commercial fishing license would be suspended for 60 days after he was released from jail on the conspiracy charge.

Jensen complied with the court order relating to the gill nets and paid the $300 in fines within the required 30 days, confirmed an official from tribal court Monday. The court clerk added this case is closed.