10 Pilot Whales Dead, Dozens More Stranded in Everglades National Park [VIDEO]

UPDATE: Read the latest news regarging the mass pilot whale stranding by clicking through. 

Ten whales have died and dozens more are stuck in shallow waters on the coast of Florida's Everglades National Park.

Park officials believe the whales are short-finned pilot whales, which are slightly bigger than a large dolphin. Like dolphins, pilot whales are social creatures, typically traveling in large groups or pods. More than four dozen whales were reported stranded along the beach in southern Florida.

The wayward pod was spotted Tuesday near Highland Beach, which is on the Gulf of Mexico side of the park. The landscape of the area is carved by a series of bays and keys, with numerous rivers emptying into the Gulf.

Linda Friar, a spokeswoman for Everglades National Park, described the area where the whales are stranded as "several football fields" long and marked by shallow shoreline. It is believed that the pod swam into the area at high tide and became stranded as the tide lowered.

"They are in water that's way too shallow," Friar told Nature World News as she drove to the remote site in the National Park.

"Nine were beached. Of those nine found, four died," she said, adding that marine animal rescuers were able to drag the other beached whales back into the water. The Associated Press reported the whales are in about 3 feet of water.

Friar said this species of whale is known for beaching themselves. This is not the first time a pod of pilot whales has become stranded in shallow Florida waters.

UPDATE: Read the latest news regarging the mass pilot whale stranding by clicking through.  

In May of 2011 a pod of about 20 pilot whales were found stranded about 20 miles north of Key West. At least 13 of those whales died, according to a CNN report at the time.

In September of 2012, 22 pilot whales beached themselves in Fort Pierce, Fla. Five of those whales survived, while the rest died of natural causes or had to be euthanized.

At the time, NOAA spokeswoman Allison Garret told the AP that pilot whales are very social animals and that one possibility behind the reason for them stranding themselves was that a member of the pod could have been sick. She said the animals will not leave a sick whale behind. "They'll stick together," she said.

Friar told Nature World News that it is unclear at this point whether any of the stranded whales are showing signs of trauma or injury, though she did say it was possible that a sick whale in the pod could have beached itself and its pod members followed along.

She said moving forward officials will try to keep the stranded whales alive and healthy until they get back to deeper waters.

Short-finned pilot whales tend to live in warm tropical waters, but typically stay offshore in deeper parts of the ocean.