Pregnant orca found dead off B.C. coast was starved, carrying dead calf

A young female killer whale was found dead off the shores of Vancouver Island on Dec. 4, 2014. (Gord Kurbis / CTV News)

A starving killer whale found off the B.C. coast likely died giving birth to a stillborn calf, according to a preliminary necropsy report.

The calf was dead and disintegrating when it was born, and both the mother and the calf showed obvious signs of malnourishment, the U.S. Center for Whale Research report said.

Those signs included an oil-free and abnormally thin layer of blubber on the 18-year-old mother, which indicates she had been starving for a prolonged period of time.

The death of the whale, named Rhapsody, cuts the population of southern resident orcas down to just 77. Southern resident orcas were declared an endangered species back in 2005, when there were 88 of them alive in the world.

The report says Rhapsody died “with a near-term fetus disintegrating in her uterus.”

The dead whale was hauled in to shore on Dec. 4 after it was found floating in the waters near Courtenay, B.C.

Researchers keep a close eye on the southern resident orca population in their effort to protect the species, which is inching ever closer to extinction.

“There are only about a dozen reproductively viable females remaining in this population,” the report says.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has not yet released an official necropsy report on the whale.