South Africa ? Authorities shot dozens of exhausted whales that beached on a shore near South Africa’s storm-lashed southern tip Saturday amid scenes of grief and despair from volunteers who had tried to save them.

Fifty-five false killer whales washed up on the shores of Kommitjie, near the Cape of Good Hope, in the early morning, prompting a massive all-day rescue effort. Hundreds of locals wearing wet suits or shorts braved high winds and rough waves to try to push the massive mammals from knee-deep water back into the open sea.

To no avail.

“I feel quite sad, but it is the right thing to do,” Nan Rice, head of the Dolphin Action and Protection Group, told the South African Press Association.