A team of more than 150 people, including experienced whale rescuers and dozens of King Island residents, worked through yesterday to save as many pilot whales as possible from a pod of about 200 that had beached along with several bottlenose dolphins.
Chris Arthur from Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service said yesterday it was not uncommon to have both whales and dolphins strand simultaneously.
Department of Primary Industries and Water and Parks and Wildlife staff arrived yesterday morning to find all but 54 of the whales still alive.
By late in the day, Mr Arthur said most of those still alive were herded to deeper water by rescuers using boats and personal watercraft.
Tasmania is the scene of roughly 80% of Australia's mass whale beachings, and this summer has been a busy one.
Last month, 48 sperm whales died when they became caught on a sand bar off Perkins Island, near Smithton on the Bass Strait coast.
On November 29 last year, 155 long-finned pilot whales died on Sandy Cape Beach, near Arthur River in the state's northwestern coast.
A week earlier, 64 whales from the same species beached at Anthonys Beach at Stanley, near Smithton.
Mr Arthur said more than 150 local people were helping parks officials refloat the surviving whales.
