SYDNEY (AFP) - Rescuers were racing against the clock Monday to save two huge sperm whales stranded on a Tasmanian sandbank after 22 others died, the Parks and Wildlife Service said. Marine mammal specialists were on site in Macquarie Harbour at Strahan on Tasmanias northwest coast, but the rescue bid was hampered by rough weather. Twenty-two of the whales each weighing two tonnes and up to 12 metres (40 feet) long washed ashore on Saturday at Ocean Beach near Strahan, and all of them died. Four others came into the harbour and became stranded on a sandbank. Two of these were successfully refloated and swam back out to sea, but the other two remain stuck. Rescuers said two minke whales also got into trouble nearby and died. Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife incident controller Chris Arthur said the sperm whales were so big that they could not simply be pulled into deeper water by volunteers, instead requiring a more complicated rescue operation.