Photographers Kristian Schmidt and Shawn Heinrichs are back with another amazing underwater fashion shoot—instead of whale sharks, they are focusing on beautiful and majestic manta rays.
Similar to the whale shark photo shoot, the photos show a female model swimming and posing gracefully with the animals.
According to Heinrichs, he said that the photo shoot was organized to raise awareness for manta rays, which were being overfished and hunted for their gill rakers.
“The gill rakers are in high demand in Chinese markets because they’re believed to cure a wide variety of ailments—from chickenpox and cancer,” said Heinrichs.
In addition to raising awareness, another goal was to help ensure that manta rays received protection from the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Specials of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is an “international agreement between governments that attempts to protect specials from becoming extinct due to international economic activity”.
[via Wired]