Department liaison officer Brendon Clark said the stranding was the first by false killer whales in Tasmania in since 1974. That was a pod of more than 160 whales that landed on a beach near Stanley on the northwest coast. Strandings in Tasmania are usually pilot whales.

Australian wildlife officers have made the difficult decision to euthanize 90 false killer whales stranded on a remote beach in Tasmania, after rough ocean conditions made it impossible to refloat them.

The surviving whales are part of a pod of 157 that beached near Arthur River, in the island’s northwest. The rest died shortly after stranding.