VANCOUVER — The remains found in a shoe on a Vancouver beach appear to belong to a marine mammal, officials said Thursday.

Coroner Barbara McLintock said investigators found a "a torn and heavily weathered shoe and some bone fragments," which did not belong to a human.

"They think they probably belong to some kind of marine mammal, maybe a seal, and they probably just ended up accidentally with the boot. It probably wasn't a hoax, it probably wasn't on purpose, it was probably just that the boot had been in the water a very long time and then it met up with the seal, so to speak."

However, the findings are preliminary and have to be confirmed by forensic anthropologists. That will be done on Friday morning, she said.

The boot was found by a passerby on Thursday afternoon, Vancouver police said in a news release.

Eight feet belonging to six different people were discovered along the B.C. coast between August 2007 and August 2011. Six of the feet as have since been identified as belonging to four people. The remaining two appear to belong to two males whose identities are yet to be determined. Foul play has been ruled out in all cases. A ninth foot was found in Sasamat Lake in Port Moody, B.C., last November.