NORWAY, P.E.I. -- Marine mammal experts are examining a dead North Atlantic right whale today after it was pulled ashore in P.E.I. in a bid to determine what killed it and several other whales in recent weeks.
The Canadian Coast Guard and federal Fisheries officials beached the whale in Norway on Wednesday to conduct the necropsy, an animal autopsy.
Jarrett Corke of the Marine Animal Response Society says plans are being made to bring at least one more of endangered animals ashore for the examination after about six carcasses were found floating in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Officials want to determine if boat strikes, fishing gear or a possible toxic algal bloom could be to blame for the deaths of the whales, spotted near Quebec's Magdalen Islands.
The society says experts need to move quickly before the animal decomposes further, which can make it more difficult to determine the cause of death.
It says only an internal exam can confirm what may have killed the whales.
