LONG BEACH, Calif., May 24 (UPI) -- Researchers say they don't think a California gray whale killed by the Makah Indian Tribe in Washington in a controversial hunt last week was the same one released to the wild just over a year ago after being nursed back from the verge of death. Mike Fergus with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Long Beach, Calif., said today the 3-year-old female whale harpooned and shot to death May 17 was smaller than J.J. would have been and didn't have scars like J.J. should have had from two transmitters and a tag that were attached to her before her April 1998 release. J.J. made a miraculous recovery at Sea World in San Diego after washing up near death on a beach in Marina del Rey in January 1997. She became one of the amusement park's most popular attractions and her progress was monitored regularly on Sea World's Web site. Marine biologists had hoped to track J.J.'s whereabouts for up to 18 months through two satellite transmitters attached to her, but the transmitters fell off less than a week after she was released. She also had a 3- to 4-inch red, white and blue streamer tag that should be visible when she surfaces or a scar if it had come off. Fergus says no DNA testing is planned on the whale's remains to try to determine if it was J.J. because ``the odds are so much against it being J.J.'' and it is ``just not a good use of taxpayer money.'' The Makahs resumed the traditional whale hunt they abandoned more than 70 years ago after receiving permission from federal authorities to kill five whales a year until 2002. The hunt came under fire from animal rights activists.  