VANCOUVER -- Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials are trying to figure out how a fin whale died and arrived in the city's harbour Sunday on the bow of a cruise ship.

The whale, spotted at the port near the Clarke Drive access point, has since been towed away so a necropsy can be performed.

On Twitter, the DFO said Monday it will have results of the necropsy in two weeks and a scientist has so far confirmed the species is a fin whale -- the second-largest type of whale after the blue whale.

Paul Cottrell, the DFO's Pacific regional marine mammal co-ordinator, said so far officials know the whale was brought into Vancouver on the bow of a cruise ship on Sunday.

He said the ship operator immediately notified authorities after noticing the whale and crew members have been interviewed. The mammal was brought into to the port so a team of experts could examine it.

"The key is you want to know the cause of death if we can determine that, and the time around when the animal died," Cottrell said.

"We moved the whale over to the Seaspan docks ... as you can imagine it's not something you can do anywhere, a large whale necropsy."

Cottrell said dead whales appearing along the B.C. coast isn't unusual.

Less than a month ago, he said, a necropsy was completed on a grey whale that washed up in Tofino, B.C.

In December, pregnant killer whale J32 washed up in Comox with a near full-term calf.