A federal investigative report released to The Associated Press through a public records request, shows that indigenous hunters in Alaska initially believed they were legally hunting a beluga whale when they unlawfully killed a protected gray whale with harpoons and guns after the marine mammal strayed into the Kuskokwim River last year.
Federal law prohibits killing gray whales however subsistence hunting of smaller beluga whales is allowed in the region. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), did not charge the hunters over their violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, instead, they chose to simply send letters to officials in the communities of Bethel, Napaskiak and Oscarville advising native leaders regarding the law and limits to subsistence whaling. Gray whales cannot be harvested for subsistence in Alaska without a quota from the International Whaling Commission. In a similar case in 2016 native villagers in Alaska’s Toksook Bay, killed a protected humpback whale – NOAA chose not prosecute in that instance either.
