Five dolphins found stranded at low tide on a beach in Western Australia's Kimberley region have died.
Todd Quartermaine from the Parks and Wildlife Service said the mammals were found this morning on the shores of Broome's Roebuck Bay.
"There were already volunteers and community members there doing a fantastic job. They'd already undertaken some triage on the dolphins," he said.
Initially, two of the dolphins had died as a result of their stranding and one had to be euthanased due to significant injuries.
"It had major injuries to its tail which it would not have recovered from," Mr Quartermaine said.
"It wasn't a blunt trauma, so potentially another animal has had a go at it."
The remaining dolphins were assessed for a return to the ocean, but it was determined they were unlikely to survive and were also euthanased.
The type of dolphin is yet to be determined.
Second stranding this year
Another three dolphins became stranded on Broome's Cable Beach in March.
They were striped dolphins which are not normally found on the coast near Broome.
One of them was also significantly injured, and Parks and Wildlife experts said a killer whale attack was the most likely explanation.
The injured dolphin was euthanased while the other two were successfully returned to the sea.
Dolphin hotspot
Recent research has shown that Broome is home to one of the biggest populations of snubfin dolphins in Western Australia.
Snubfin dolphins are only found along northern Australia's coastline and are considered near-threatened.
Humpback and bottlenose dolphins are also commonly seen in waters around Broome.
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