The False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) beached on Kommetjie Beach, Cape Town.

Marine scientists had to euthanase about 50 whales that stranded themselves on Kommetjie beach in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Nan Rice, head of the Dolphin Action and Protection group said a decision had been made to put down part of a group of 55 false killer whales that could not be moved back into the sea.

"That decision has been made. I believe they may be doing it right now," she said.

'They just make a U-turn and keep rebeaching themselves'
Officials and volunteers had been struggling throughout the day to help the whales back into the sea.

"We have tried everything but they just make a U-turn and keep rebeaching themselves," said Wally Peterson, project manager for the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness group.

Rice said the whales would be shot through the head with a pistol.

"I feel quite sad but it is the right thing to do," she said.

Rice said mass strandings are extremely stressful for whales and to save stranding whales is an extremely difficult task.

"They are huge animals and are stranded over a vast area. Unfortunately the volunteers couldn't do it."

Rice said the whales, which weigh 4 600-5 500kg and grow to 4.6-5.5m long, probably stranded because of a "navigational error".

The NSRI earlier appealed to members of the public who want to help put the 55 beached whales back at sea, to rather stay away.

"The roads to the beach are blocked because of all the public support," spoksperson Craig Lambinon said. "The best help people could be at the moment is to stay away."

Lambinon said six front-end loaders from the City of Cape Town helped put some of the whales back into the water.

The whales started beaching themselves at around 7.30am on Saturday.

False Killer whale information

is a cetacean and one of the larger members of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). It lives in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. As its name implies, the False Killer Whale shares characteristics with the more widely known orca ("killer whale"). The two species look somewhat similar and, like the orca, the False Killer Whale attacks and kills other cetaceans.The False Killer Whale has not been extensively studied in the wild by scientists - much of the data about the dolphin has been derived by examining stranded animals.

The species is the only member of the Pseudorca genus.
This dolphin has a slender body with a dorsal fin that may be more than a foot high. One of the species' distinguishing characteristics is a bend and bulge (usually called the "elbow") half-way along each of the flippers. The tips of the tail fin are pointed and the middle of the tail has a distinct notch. The False Killer is uniformly coloured a dark grey to black. The False Killer Whale is a social animal - it lives in groups of 10-50 . It is a fast and very active swimmer. It may breach or jump clear of the water and will often land on its side with a big splash. On other occasions the dive may be very graceful - leaving very little wake at all. It will readily approach boats and bow- and wake-ride. It may also emerge from the water head held high upwards and with the mouth open - revealing some of its 44 teeth. The dolphin grows to about 6 m long, may weigh 1,500 kg and lives for about 60 years.

Population and distribution
Although not often seen at sea, the False Killer Whale appears to have a widespread, if rare, distribution in temperate and tropical oceanic waters. They have been sighted in fairly shallow waters such as the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea as well as the Atlantic Ocean (from Scotland to Argentina), the Indian Ocean (in coastal regions) and the Pacific Ocean (from the Sea of Japan to New Zealand and the tropical area of the eastern side).The total population is unknown. The eastern Pacific was estimated to have in excess of 40,000 individuals and is probably the home of the largest grouping.