An Orca whale calf was found dead on the beach near the Butter Clam beach approach in Ocean Shores this past weekend.

Jessie Huggins of the Cascadia Research group said the whale came ashore late Saturday evening and a necropsy was conducted by Cascadia Research, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and local stranding network volunteers on Sunday morning.

It was 7 feet, 8 inches long, female, and “pretty decomposed,” Huggins said.

“The preliminary exam suggested possible birth-related trauma, although the decomposition does make it difficult to make an exact cause of death determination,” Huggins said. “It is unclear whether this was a resident, transient, or offshore ecotype; that will be determined over the next couple of weeks from the genetic sample we collected.”

Huggins also noted that umerous samples were collected to support ongoing killer whale research and the skeleton was collected for future educational display.