https://apnews.com/69a6d7c8d51d40fda840e3a17498884a

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Native hunters from Alaska will not be prosecuted after they used harpoons and guns last year to kill a protected gray whale that strayed into a river from the North Pacific Ocean.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration instead sent three letters advising villages about the law and limits to subsistence whaling, the agency said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. Federal law prohibits the killing of gray whales even though Alaska Natives are allowed to kill other whales.