The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians are leading a project to reintroduce the Arctic grayling to Michigan rivers some 89 years after the fish were made extinct in the area.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources are collaborating with a number of Native American tribes to establish self-sustaining populations of the fish to state rivers.

CNN reports that on May 12, the agency will give 400,000 Arctic grayling eggs to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

The tribes will then place the eggs at key locations along the Manistee River, Maple River and Boardman-Ottaway River.

The Department of Natural Resources says the eggs will be placed in streamside incubators that allow the fish to develop a natural connection with the waters.

Arctic grayling have historically been found in streams in the state's Lower Peninsula, including in the Manistee and Au Sable rivers, but in 1936 the fish was driven to extinction in Michigan due to habitat loss, unregulated logging, and pressures from fish species not native to the streams.

The agency and the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians introduced this ongoing initiative in 2016.

Previous attempts to establish a self-sustaining wild grayling population have failed, but the Department advises that new technologies and methods have significantly improved the chances of successful reintroduction.

Three Michigan lakes were stocked with grayling in November 2003, but the stocking was not intended to establish a self-sustaining population.