The whale was found by a woman out on her morning walk. (Brian Higgins/CBC)

A P.E.I. marine-mammal biologist thinks a young whale that washed up dead on a beach may have become caught in fishing gear and drowned.

The female minke whale was found June 16 on the North Shore east of St. Peters. It was the eighth whale to be found on an Island beach over the past 20 years.

Scientists found deep indentations on the base of the tail during necropsy. Pierre-Yves Daoust of the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown told CBC News Monday it wasn't the first time he had seen marks like those.

"In at least three of those eight whales there was [a] history report by the lobster fishermen that particular minke whale had been caught in his gear," said Daoust.

"This one, there was no rope, but the marks, the deep cuts on the tail were very reminiscent in what we had seen in some of the three whales that had definitely died of entrapment in lobster fishing gears."

Daoust isn't too worried about such entanglements becoming a common occurrence around P.E.I. When it does happen, he said, it's unfortunate for both the whale and the fishermen, who lose costly gear.