VANCOUVER - A post-mortem examination will be done on a killer whale calf that was found floating off the coast of Vancouver Island.

Federal fisheries officials hope to find out which pod the animal came from and how it died.

They say a lot of the young female whale's skin is gone, which shows it was floating for some time.

There has been a baby boom among B.C. whales over the last year.

But fisheries officials don't know yet if the dead calf is one of the recent newborns.