Joy turned to sadness on the Māhia Peninsula on Sunday after a pod of around 40 false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins had to be euthanised.

Rescuers worked to successfully re-float the animals on the high tide after they began stranding at Taylor's Beach near Māhia township Sunday afternoon.

But they went on to re-strand at a remote beach further south.

Darren Grover from Project Jonah spoke to Charlotte Cook.