Rescue efforts continuing to save whales stranded on Ocean Beach at Macquarie Harbour

Crews from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, and other organisations are working to save the remaining surviving whales.

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The stranding occurred two years ago to the day when more than twice the amount of pilot whales washed up at the same location.

The recent stranding also follows the deaths of at least 14 sperm whales that washed ashore on King Island on Monday afternoon.

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service regional operations manager Brendon Clark said the rescue effort was ongoing.

"We've triaged the animals yesterday as part of the preliminary assessment, and we've identified those animals that have the best chance of survival of the 230 that's stranded.

"Today's focus will be on rescue and release operations, where we position those animals that we assessed as having the best chance of survival."

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The mortality rate of the whales stranded on Wednesday morning is higher than the incident that occurred in the same spot two years ago, where 100 of the 470 animals survived.

"Unfortunately, we do have a high mortality on this particular stranding.

"That's predominately due to the exposed conditions out on Ocean Beach, as opposed to the stranding that we had two years ago where we had many of those animals in the estuary of the harbour, so they were actually stranded in much more sheltered waters.

"The environmental conditions and the surf out there on the exposed West Coast is certainly taking a toll on the animals."

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