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For four days, helpers tried to save as many of the pilot whales stranded off Australia as possible.
Julian Moore, Volunteer
"The whales obviously felt comfortable around us. We noticed that they were communicating with each other. You could hear them talking."
Animal by animal was maneuvered into deeper waters by boat - a race against time.
More than a hundred of the 470 whales were rescued, and some had to be euthanized.
Finally, on Saturday none of the stranded animals was alive.
Onlookers
"A lot of parents are probably critical of us showing it to our children. But that is the natural course of things. And something you don't see too often."
The stranded whales were discovered on Monday on a sandbank off the west coast of Tasmania.
Pilot whales are a type of dolphin, they can grow up to seven meters long and weigh three tons.
Sharks have already been seen on some of the carcasses.
Nic Deka, Tasmania Environment Officer
"There are always sharks in this area, so that's anything but unusual. The residents here fish sharks from the beach. The carcasses could attract even more sharks."
After the end of the rescue operation, the helpers have now started to drag the whale carcasses out to sea.
Nic Deka, Tasmania Environment Officer
"You drag the whales out to sea with a rope. We tie the whales by the tail fins. We drag ten or 20 animals out at once. We are just finding out how many we can moor at once."
Whale strandings are quite common in Tasmania, but there are usually significantly fewer animals.
The stranding of the pilot whales is considered to be one of the largest in Australia.