HONOLULU -- It took a good part of Tuesday to get rid of a rotting whale carcass that washed up on Shipwreck's Beach on Kauai.

Kauai police reported the problem to National Marine Fisheries and the state Land and Natural Resources.

The smelly chunk of decomposed whale blubber and bone was stuck on the rocks at Poipu just in front of the Grand Hyatt Resort and Spa.

Officials were concerned that the carcass would attract sharks and that the bacteria from the decaying tissue could pose a health threat.

“There is really no way we will know the cause of death. We will be lucky to be able to get species because it seemed like it was a pretty decomposed specimen,” said David Schofield, with the National Marine Fisheries.

Scientists did take samples of the whale before it was removed from the beach. They said it may be the remains of a humpback, but they won’t know for sure until laboratory results are returned.

Staff at the Hyatt used heavy equipment to drag the carcass up the beach where it was buried.

A cultural practitioner from the hotel performed a blessing on the remains before it was removed.

It’s still a mystery how the chunk of whale tissue ended up at Poipu. The U.S. Coast Guard reported seeing a whale carcass floating off Oahu ‘s Kaena Point on Friday.

“The Coast Guard did a drift model and suggested that it would drift south southwest. So this could be part of the same carcass, but we won’t know for sure,” Schofield said.