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.

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.

Wildlife authorities are euthanasing what remains of a false killer whale pod that stranded itself on Tasmania's west coast, as they consider the steps that follow.