Rare fin whale found dead on B.C. beach, apparent victim of blunt force trauma

The body of a rare, young fin whale has been found on a remote beach on British Columbia's south coast, says an official with the Fisheries Department.

The body of a rare, young fin whale has been found on a remote beach on British Columbia’s south coast, says an official with the Fisheries Department.

Paul Cottrell, the department’s Pacific marine mammal coordinator, said initial examinations suggest the two-year-old whale was killed by blunt force trauma from a possible vessel strike on its right side.

“There’s lots of tissues that we took in. We’re examining lots of organs, samples and blubber and DNA and we’ll look for pathology and pathogens or any sign of disease in the animal,” he said in an interview.

“But there was this big, blunt force trauma event on the animal, so there may be a vessel strike. It possibly could have died from a vessel strike, but we’re still kind of working through all the information.”

Fin whales are the second largest whale in the ocean, growing up to 27 metres long and weighing nearly 80 tonnes. They have a lifespan of up to 100 years.

The Species at Risk Act lists fin whales in Pacific Canadian waters as threatened, with about 500 of them remaining.

Cottrell said the 13-metre-long whale probably died in mid-March before it washed ashore near Pender Harbour, about 100 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

“Fin whales are very rare on the inside Salish Sea. Maybe every couple years we get a sighting, so it was really, really unique and odd,” he said.