Beached pregnant whale found with teeth plucked

SAANICH, British Columbia, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in Canada, are investigating the disappearance of several whale teeth, sawed off and stolen right out of the mouth of a dead orca as biologists prepared the transport the beached mammal over the weekend.

The theft happened at some point between Thursday and Saturday, after officials were called to the scene of the beaching on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. At some point -- while wildlife officials worked to move the whale to a local boat launch, where it could be turned over to biologists for examination -- a handful of the whale's teeth were stolen.

"Her jaw and teeth were in great shape and solid," Paul Cottrell, the Pacific marine mammals co-ordinator for the department, said in an interview over the weekend. "It looks like they broke off a couple, and there were a number that were sawed off, and those were cut off right to the gum."

Killer whales are endangered in Canada, and the nation's Species At Risk Act makes it a federal crime to possess, transport, buy or sell any part of an endangered or threatened specimen.

"We've got a few leads and we're working really hard to find out who did this," Cottrell told The Province. "We will do everything we can to find that out and charge them if we can locate where the teeth are. We don't want a black market in illegal species. We take it very seriously."

During Saturday's necropsy, biologists determined that the whale was pregnant with a full-term fetus. Scientists hypothesize that the female orca -- previously tagged and known as J-32 -- likely died due to pregnancy complications, but they will need to conduct further testing to confirm.

The population of killer whales that hugs the coastline of Washington State and British Columbia is especially vulnerable. At last count there were only 78 total, and 17 reproductive females. The death of J-32 is a devastating loss for the group.