Hundreds of sea of turtles were seen erupting from a nest on the beach of Heron Island, a popular breeding ground for the animal located off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

Dr Gaston Boulanger filmed footage of the phenomenon on March 4. It shows the turtle hatchlings escaping from the sand and moving towards the water.

“Normally one or two will pop out of the nest, but this time they seemed to explode out of the sand just like a small turtle volcano,” Boulanger told The Gladstone Observer. “Each nest holds approximately 100 eggs and baby turtles take six to eight weeks to hatch, but only one in a thousand make it back.”

Boulanger also told Observer that Heron Island was one of the best areas to witness turtle hatchlings rushing to the ocean. Credit: Gaston Boulanger via Storyful