© Tasmania Parks And WildlifeSteve Mansfield (L) and James Grey from the Parks and Wildlife Service tag deceased sperm whales on Ocean Beach near Strahan on Tasmania's west coast on November 1. Wildlife staff are battling wet and windy conditions as they try to save four sperm whales stranded in shallow water after 22 others die.
Marine mammal specialists were on site in Macquarie Harbour at Strahan on Tasmania's northwest coast, but the rescue bid was hampered by rough weather.
Twenty-two of the whales -- each weighing two tonnes and up to 12 metres (40 feet) long -- washed ashore on Saturday at Ocean Beach near Strahan, and all of them died.
Four others came into the harbour and became stranded on a sandbank. Two of these were successfully refloated and swam back out to sea, but the other two remain stuck.
Rescuers said two minke whales also got into trouble nearby and died.
Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife incident controller Chris Arthur said the sperm whales were so big that they could not simply be pulled into deeper water by volunteers, instead requiring a more complicated rescue operation.
