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Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu was in for a rude shock on Monday morning. Short-finned pilot whales---almost 80 so far---washed up onto their beaches, according to CBS News.

While at least 26 of the mammals were pushed back into the sea by rescuers, the mammals seemed to be disoriented and a few returned.

The residents here are making efforts to ask a marine park to help them with the process of returning them.

Rescuing pilot whales is tough because they need to go back to the ocean at the same time, said Kumaran Sathasivam, a whale expert, to the BBC.

"Otherwise, they will return to be with the whale that is in distress. The whales emanate a sound that is not audible to human beings and that makes them return to the shore," he said. "Also, because of their weight, they are not able to get back into the water and their bodies get overheated, and they die on the shore. You need to constantly pour water on them because their bodies are covered in a layer of fat."

Short-finned whales are very sociable and do not like to swim alone, according to the Daily Mail. Ravi Kumar, the top government official for the town, explained that without a leader, the school gets confused and lost.

It was in 1973 that the whales came to shore in such big numbers the last time said local records.