Volunteers gathered under rain at Auckland's Kohimarama Beach on Saturday to carry out 'Marine Mammal Rescue Training'.
Weighted plastic whales and dolphins are used to help rescuers learn how to return stranded sea creatures to the water successfully.
At first glance it's a worrying sight.
But don't panic - because these stranded whales are of the inflatable variety.
"[They are] custom bespoke life-size, life-weight, training animals, so we've got two pilot whales and two dolphins," said Louisa Hawkes, volunteer coordinator for Project Jonah.
"And we fill them with water so they become life-weight. So we've got 200 kilos for a dolphin and 2 tonnes for our pilot whales," she told Newshub.
This special marine medic training is run throughout the country by environmental organisation Project Jonah.
It aims to teach volunteers how to respond to whale or dolphin strandings, and give them a better chance of successfully returning to the water.
"Good skill to have, and I like whales and dolphins and I don't wanna see them die!" said one participant.
"I just wanna make a difference. I'm into boating and fishing and all that sort of stuff and I thought 'yeah this is something that I can do, I see a lot of whales'," another said.
"And it's really nice to put the skills into practical skills today out on the beach," a third added.
It was only two weeks ago that a 30-tonne sperm whale beached at Christchurch's South Brighton
Attempts to refloat it were unsuccessful.
And in September, a pygmy blue whale was discovered dead on Hōkio Beach near Levin.
"Every stranding is different. We have different whales, different beaches, different weather conditions, different people, so we have to be really agile when we're responding to a stranding, and that's why having these volunteers trained up around the country is a really useful tool," said Hawkes.
Project Jonah said there are around 300 marine animal strandings a year.
Once qualified, the volunteers will go into their database so they can be contacted if there's a stranding near them.
And although actual beached whales might be a little more active than these guys, the skills practised on the beach today could one day prove life-saving.
