IRELAND’S most beautiful sisters swapped their stilettos and designer threads for wetsuits and flippers when they made a splash off the coast.

Supermodel Jane Bradbury and marine biologist Kate proved they were model sisters when they took starring roles in a documentary about the wonders of Ireland’s Atlantic coast.

The pair, who took the New York fashion world by storm with their beauty and charm, frolicked with fun-loving seals in Kerry.

Statuesque Jane has rubbed shoulders with fellow supermodels Kate Moss, Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer on catwalk shows and has fronted campaigns for Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci.  The sisters, from Athy in Kildare, went deep sea diving off the coast this week with fellow models to seek out the marine life teeming under the surface for a new TV3 series.

Supermodel Jane, who has recently starred in two movies, said she was thrilled to get back in Irish waters.

She said yesterday: “I’m obsessed with the water since we were really young.

“We used to go to Omey Island which is tidal island off Clifden. Katie wanted to do this dive to create marine awareness and I was delighted to come over to do it with her.

“I love it here. Idealistically I would spent half my time here. The great thing now is financially I don’t have to work all the time.”

The stunning five foot ten inch Kildare girl wowed America when she arrived in New York at the age of 19 as the new Ford supermodel in mid nineties.  Her sister Kate followed her over five years ago but she left the fashion world after just a year and a half.

The 24-year-old, who has just qualified as a marine zoologist, said she was too busy on marine missions around the world to hold down a career as a model.

The beautiful marine expert said: “My sister was in the business and people were always saying ‘Oh Kate, you should be a model’.

“Finally I said I’ll go and do it. I went to New York and travelled around the world. I went to Paris, Milan, London, New York.

“The model agency was always looking for me. I would be going on volunteer ships to Central America or I would be somewhere in a rain forest. Then I just left modelling to come into the marine biology world.

“I decided I wanted to concentrate on volunteer ships and getting a greater awareness of the marine world.”

And she is determined to show Irish people the wonders of the ocean around the island.

Kate said she came up with the idea to hold a National Marine Awareness Day after discovering how little Irish people knew about their ocean.

She said: “I wanted to use models and celebrities to build awareness of the Irish Sea. I want to make the environment hip.

“We did the dive off the coast of Castlegregory in Kerry.

“Back in November I did some education work for schools. I was amazed at the huge ignorance about what’s in our Irish sea.

“So I decided to do the Brown Thomas Show at Christmas and start to work on the project from there.”

Four models - the Bradbury sisters, male Irish model Julian Pearson and model Johanna Maher - frolicked around in the water for the documentary which will be shown on TV3.

Kate said she is fascinated by the amount of life swimming around off the coast.

“I was watching Minke whales last weekend rising up between a hundred dolphins swimming around Dingle Bay,” she said.

She said her passion for the marine world was sparked in her aunt and uncle’s home on Omey Island off the coast of Mayo.

She said: “We spent every summer there and used to just hang out in the sea all the time.”

Meanwhile her sister is flying back to fast and furious worlds of New York film and fashion after her dip in the Irish Sea.

She is signed up with the exclusive Women Agency who also represent Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.

She said she was bowled over when she appeared on her first big international show a few years ago.

“The first time I did this huge show in Italy, there with Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Helena Christensen and it was overwhelming,” she said.

“I knew the girls quite well. I know Helena very well and Giselle but I’m not so much in the modelling world too much anymore.

“I didn’t meet anyone else Irish over there. It’s a different world. It is a kind of a fast and furious life.

“There are a lot of beautiful girls but it depends on your personality as well. When you go away on a shoot you have to spend a few days with people. They want to know they can get on with you.”