ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
A vast underwater nesting ground off Corsica, France, hosts 18 million picarel fish nests each year—a unique ecological event found nowhere else in the world. ANGELS AND NESTS captures this hidden spectacle for the first time, blending science, adventure, and cinema.

SYNOPSIS
This documentary reveals a major underwater discovery—both ecologically significant and visually breathtaking—hidden until now in plain sight in the Mediterranean Sea.

Every year off the coast of Corsica, an extraordinary natural phenomenon unfolds beneath the waves: the picarel (Spicara smaris), a small, silver, and seemingly ordinary fish, begins its annual reproduction. As winter ends, the males undergo a stunning transformation- turning golden, streaked with electric blue lines—and engage in complex behaviors that culminate in a massive underwater construction project.

In a unique reproductive strategy, it is the males who dig and fiercely guard the nests. These are not isolated patches but enormous circular craters, meticulously arranged side by side across hundreds of hectares. The result: colossal fields of perfectly aligned nests, each about 55 cm in diameter, forming geometric colonies that resemble a giant honeycomb on the sea floor.

Our first analysis estimated more than 18 million nests, with densities of 2-3 nests per square meter—a global record in marine breeding behavior. By comparison, the 2021 discovery of icefish nests in Antarctica revealed densities below one nest per square meter.

These vast colonies form each year between 40 and 60 meters deep, on the lower fringe of the Posidonia seagrass meadows that shelter the picarels throughout the year. Yet despite their scale, they have remained completely unknown to science-likely because the event is fleeting, lasting just a few weeks at the end of winter when few researchers dive, and the low-relief structures evade conventional sonar mapping.

This film will document the phenomenon in unprecedented detail, bringing to light a spectacular yet overlooked marvel of marine life, and challenging our understanding of what we thought we knew about the Mediterranean Sea.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Luc Marescot, Laurent Ballesta
PRODUCER Vivien Lemaigan, Laurent Ballesta

WEBSITE gombessa-expeditions.com

ID: 747