Austrian woman Antonia Leifner watches agonisingly as the 5 pilot whales slowly die on the beach at Ballyness Bay, Falcarragh, Co. Donega. (North West Newspix)
A fed-up whale watcher has miraculously rescued two pilot whales which had been left to die on a Falcarragh beach.
The two Pilot Whales were part of the pod of 13 whales which had beached at Ballyness Bay.
The whales had been rescued twice after first being spotted on Monday morning by a passing jogger.
However seven of the whales beached again on Monday afternoon at 5pm.
A decision was made by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to leave the whales to die on the beach and then to bury them.
Passers-by were left visibly upset as the whales tried to breath on the sand.
The NPWS had warned people not to touch the animals and Gardai had advised people not to visit the beach.
However Gareth Doherty, the owner of a local sailing company who had ben involved in the original rescue of the whales, decided he could not stand by and watch.
He gathered some other volunteers and arrived back at the beach in the early hours of this morning.
By the time the whales were put back to see they had been left stranded on the beach for around 36 hours.
Two of the whales were in a bad condition but two of the others, measuring 3.8 and 4 metres in length, were still in good conditions.
Aided by the high tide around 4am, Gareth and other volunteers managed to put the two whales back out to sea.
Garreth said “We could not just stand by and watch these animals suffer anymore.
“They were in up to two feet of water which kept them alive and in a hole which must have been dug by the council.
“We put them on their side and managed to get them out into deeper water.
“We brought them out into deeper water and they swam away. We haven’t seen them since but we will monitor them and put them back to sea again if need be.
“As an animal lover I just could not sit back and watch them die without trying to save them,” he said.
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