Bite Back! Underwater Photographs Promote Marine Conservation in Charity Calendar

The streamlined predator was spotted off the coast of Cornwall swimming beneath the surface, with a fellow fish just metres behind.

Alex Mustard’s snap is one of the thirteen images from British shark and marine conservation charity Bite-Back’s 2015 calendar.

Award-winning underwater photographers have shot images from around the world of sharks, inquisitive sea lions, surfacing stingrays and majestic humpback whales.

The images of marine life appear in the fundraising calendar that aims to prevent the decline in shark population.

British photographer Alex said: “For me it’s so much better to encounter one of Europe’s iconic species free and in the wild rather than piled up on a slab in a fish market.

“The European population has been hunted to the brink of extinction, but in the last few years there do seem to be the first green shoots of recovery. Let’s hope it continues.”

More than 70 million sharks are killed every year for their meat and fins, forcing the species population to fall by up to 90 per cent over the past 35 years.

According to the marine charity, the decline in population corresponds to an increased demand for shark fin soup – which is currently sold in 43 British restaurants.

Celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have backed Bite-Back’s ‘Hacked Off!’ campaign to stop the sale of the popular Chinese soup.

Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: "Sharks are at the forefront of an underwater genocide.

“They are being killed faster than they can reproduce and at a rate that, without significant intervention, could cause the oceans to collapse.

“We want the calendar to be a celebration of the underwater world and also a daily reminder of what’s at stake.”

The 2015 fundraising calendar can be purchased from www.bite-back.com