State Department of Land and Natural Resources personnel continued to monitor Kalapaki Beach on Kauai and surrounding areas Saturday following the mysterious mass stranding of a group of pilot whales a day earlier.

Five whales died as a result of the stranding, and two others were spotted in the area Friday.

Post-mortem examinations continued on the five whales Saturday, DLNR reported.

NOAA officials responding to initial reports of the beaching found two whales dead and five others stranded at Kalapaki Beach, near Nawiliwili.

Coast Guard and Ocean Safety personnel, Kauai firefighters, NOAA staff and volunteers, and canoe paddlers refloated the five surviving whales and herded them out to sea, but by nightfall three more were found dead.

NOAA marine mammal response coordinator David Schofield told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Friday that while whale mass strandings are most common among pilot whales, mass strandings of any species of whale are unusual in Hawaii.

Such strandings can be the result of natural causes like disease or infection, or human activity, such as the use of sonar by Navy ships. The cause of Friday’s stranding has not yet been determined.