EARLY FIRE SEASON
7 September 2006 Our local wetland, 3rd Lagoon Reserve, already suffering from the prolonged dry, is today being ravished by fire. I noticed the smoke on the way home from the post office at around 9.30am, and it is still burning now, 3 hours later. Some local roads were cut, and the Qld Fire and Rescue Service's water-bombing helicopters have been around most of the morning.

GOODBYE TO THE CROCODILE HUNTER

My condolences go out to the family, friends and colleagues of Steve Irwin in these tragic times.

A truly larger-than-life character who inspired kids around the planet to get their heads out of computer games and into the real world, he left his mark on nature TV programing through his unbridled enthusiasm for the world around him.

His legacy won't just be the increased environmental awareness he created directly, but in the influence his larrikin style has had, and will continue to have, on the way wildlife is brought into our homes.

HOOKED -- A True Story of Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish, by G. Bruce Knecht
Paperback
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia (June 2006)
ISBN: 9781741143881

Hooked is the first-hand account of an action-packed pursuit across the wild Southern Ocean, as an Australian Customs Patrol boat attempts to intercept Patagonian Toothfish pirates caught fishing in the Australian Fishing Zone around Heard Island in 2003.

Icebergs, Diplomatic tensions, South African mercinaries and hurricanes all combine to make this a hard-to-put-down volume.

Along with graphic day-by-day accounts of the chase, author Bruce Knecht also provides an insight into the short history of the commercialisation of the species, and the consumer pressures that may ultimately see the collapse of yet another fishery at the hands (and hooks) of over-zealous fishers.

AUSTRALIA -- reef, rainforest red heart, by Darren Jew
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: New Holland Publishers, Ltd. (September 1998)
ISBN: 1864363770

My book, Australia -- reef, rainforest red heart is out of print, but you can read a review and purchase copies at Amazon.com or you will also find copies at the UK site Amazon.co.uk or for the German-speakers Amazon.de usually has a few copies.

A WIDE VIEW OF THE UNDERWATER WORLD
This is the first in my new series of aquatic panoramas. Featuring a school of Giant Sweetlip amongst the coral wonderland of Challenger Bay, on the Ribbon Reefs off Cooktown, Far North Queensland, the new technique brings a new perspective to the underwater world.