The corpse of a humpback whale , probably one whose jumps had attracted hundreds of onlookers in Montreal in recent days, has been recovered from the Saint Laurent River.

The cetacean's body was sighted by the captain of a ship a few dozen kilometers east of the Québec city, near the city of Varennes .

"Earlier this morning, a commercial ship pilot reported a whale carcass," said Marie-Ève ​​Muller, spokesperson for the Québec Marine Mammal Emergency Network (RQUMM). "It is very likely the same whale seen in Montreal a few days ago," she added.

The body was adrift until it was recovered by a Canadian government ship and taken to the town of Sorel , about 80 kilometers east of Montreal.

There, an autopsy will be carried out by a team of veterinarians from the University of Montreal to determine the cause of his death , RQUMM said.

The whale, estimated to be between two and three years old , was seen in late May in the Saint Laurent River off the city of Montreal.

Hundreds of curious people came to observe her for several days in front of the Old Port, near the Jacques Cartier bridge .

The city is more than 400 kilometers from the natural habitat of these cetaceans and it is the first time that a whale has been observed at that height of the river bed, according to specialists.

The captain of the ship that discovered the body on Tuesday morning, Simon Lebrun, explained to Radio Canada that he had "not perceived any blood or deformation" , which would rule out the hypothesis of a collision with a boat.

Experts expected the young whale to find on its own "the way back" to its habitat, Muller said.

According to the RQUMM, a humpback whale can measure between 13 and 17 meters and weigh up to 40 tons in adulthood.

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