Environmentalist Herbert Andrade has been watching hundreds of baby turtles scuttle toward the sea on Brazil’s northwest coast, where beaches would normally be packed with people.

“The whole world is under risk,” Andrade, environmental manager for the city of Paulista, told The Washington Post. “But this was a moment of happiness. It was a feeling that nature was transforming itself.”

Andrade said it has been emotional seeing the natural world he studies in a completely different context.

“We see the transformation of nature,” Andrade said in a video, in which a child can be heard in the background as the environmentalist speaks from what appears to be a home office. “It was a surreal sensation to see nature carrying out its role in its own way.”

Andrade lamented that people don’t normally come to the beach to understand nature.

“I see in the future with all of this. We are going to understand that nature is a part of us, and we have to preserve it,” Andrade said. “Every animal, every being has its own importance and its own contribution to the environment.”

Watch the video HERE.