A group of pilot whales in the Everglades National Park in Florida have been found swimming dangerously close to shore, causing additional worry amongst environmentalists that the whales may be dehydrated.

According to CNN, this latest group of pilot whales came dangerously close to shore not long after about 30 pilot whales were herded into deeper waters. These whales are thought to be in physical trouble. "The whales were reportedly swimming more slowly and in a more disorganized fashion, which may suggest exhaustion, dehydration or malnutrition," marine scientists said.

The report went on to further say that beached whales are not an uncommon occurence in Florida. Last year, nearly two dozen pilot whales washed ashore and beached themselves.

Nevertheless, according to MSNBC, this latest pod of pilot whales coming into shallow shores is causing some distress amongst scientists, even though the outpouring of support from volunteers has been encouraging. On Thursday, 11 whales of the original stranded pod were dead, and five more were unaccounted for. Initially, the scientists thought that the whales had swam into deeper waters; however, today's discovery of additional whales has caused additional concern.

However, Everglades spokeswoman Linda Friar said that she, and her volunteers, were on standby should they be needed. "Once they got beyond 10 feet, that was a good sign," Friar said, noting that the whales need to be in much deeper water in order to feed. Friar said she was moved by all the support the rescue effort had garnered. "There's something about these whales. The outpouring of volunteers and ideas of how to save them is pretty phenomenal," she said.

Pilot whales are notorious for stranding themselves on beaches, and are among the most common whale stranders. Several theories have been proposed to account for this behavior. The status of both species of pilot whale is not understood, and they have been subject to direct and indirect catches by fisheries. Whalers in a few countries continue to hunt pilot whales.