Freediver poses with hammerhead to highlight plastic pollution

Cayman Islands underwater photographer Jason Washington and freediver Coral Tomascik have joined forces again this year with Inter Miami football team to spotlight the impact of plastics on the world’s oceans – and this time, they’re joined by a great hammerhead.

This is the third time the duo have partnered with the Major League Soccer team to launch its latest jersey, supplied by Adidas, from the Primeblue collection, which is made from recycled plastics reclaimed from the ocean.

Last year, their photo shoot featured stingrays in the North Sound, and in 2021, Tomascik posed with a soccer ball at the Kittiwake wreck dive site off West Bay.

This time, they headed to Bimini in the Bahamas which, Washington says, is one of the “sharkiest” places in the world.

In a video to accompany the image of Tomascik, dressed in a cut-off version of the jersey, lying on the seabed as a great hammerhead meanders past, Washington explains that more than 8 million metric tons of plastic are dumped in the world’s oceans each year.

“Over time, this plastic is broken down into microplastics and it’s consumed by the fish that you and I eat. Now, microplastics and nanoplastics can be found in human beings all over our planet,” he said.

This year’s campaign highlights that the world’s oceans need to be healthy to continue to support apex predators, such as the great hammerhead.

Washington said last year’s image of Tomascik seemingly playing football with the stingrays “was so great, we needed to do something really iconic” this year.

He added, “When you’re dealing with iconic brands, like Inter Miami, Adidas, Major League Soccer, Apply TV, we needed something different. So, what more iconic thing could we shoot with than a shark, an apex predator – specifically, the great hammerhead.”

Tomascik says the still image of her beside the hammerhead, with the white sandy seabed as the backdrop, showed off the “silhouette of this endangered species”.

Washington added, “Not only does this perspective highlight the silhouette of this amazing creature, it starts a conversation… about the importance of conservation, a conversation about the importance of having a healthy planet.”