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.

The animals are part of a pod of 157 whales that beached near Arthur River, a township in Tasmania. What caused them to beach remains unclear.

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.