WAIMANALO, Hawaii -- Waimanalo residents can breathe a little easier Thursday after workers were able to remove a rotting whale carcass from the beach.

Highway crews had the difficult and smelly job of removing the whale carcass from Waimanalo Beach on Thursday.

Five days after washing up on the beach, the remains of the whale were ready to be taken away. Bad weather had kept crews from doing the job until Thursday.

The 2-ton piece of whale had been floating at sea for some time.

"Maybe as long as six weeks, two months, a long time -- because this probably was a big whale. This is just the last remaining piece of it that decomposed to this point," said Jeff Walters, of the Department of Land and Natural Resources Whale Sanctuary.

Most people stayed a good distance away from the work. State highway workers donned masks to brave the assignment. The Transportation Department pitched in because it has the equipment to do the required very heavy lifting.

Teams had dragged the carcass across the beach, loaded it into a truck and drove it to the landfill.