VANCOUVER — A female killer whale from a small and endangered group of orcas has been found dead off Vancouver Island.
The Vancouver Aquarium's Dr. Peter Ross says the loss of the 18-year-old animal is profoundly disappointing for experts who have been carefully monitoring the southern resident whales.
Ross says the whale was known as J-32, was 18 years old, and would have been entering her reproductive life.
Paul Cottrell of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has looked over the whale's body and says there's no obvious cause of death.
A team of experts from the fisheries' department, the aquarium and the B.C. Animal Health Centre will participate in a necropsy on the animal this weekend.
Southern residents have been labelled endangered by both Canada and the U.S. and just 77 remaining whales ply the waters off B.C. and Washington state.
