A dead grey whale was found floating off the British Columbia coast on Saturday, pushing the number of dead grey whales discovered in provincial waters this year to 10. The latest animal was spotted off Cape Scott Provincial Park on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

The sighting was reported the next day, and the Fisheries Department said Thursday it is hoping the whale will be seen again so it can be located and secured. That would give marine mammal responders a chance to examine it, if conditions allow, through the necropsies they try to conduct on dead whales where possible.

The new discovery adds to a grim run of deaths already recorded along the coast this year. Of the 10 whales found so far, three were recovered dead in a span of two weeks last month near Haida Gwaii, and another four bodies were discovered in April near Vancouver Island.

The rising count is notable because the Fisheries Department had already warned earlier this year that more whale deaths were expected after lower food supplies in the whales’ northern feeding grounds last summer. Even so, the province has already reached 10 dead grey whales, close to the 11 found in British Columbia waters in 2019.

At least two of the whales found this year were described as in extremely emaciated condition, a detail that suggests some were struggling well before they died. That is the part that matters now: whether the latest whale can be found again soon enough to be examined before tides and distance erase the evidence.