NATURAL RESOURCES GRAY MATTER - BOOK REVIEW.

``Eye of the Whale''

By Dick Russell (Simon & Schuster, $35)

At 634 pages, this is a whale of a book. Russell, a writer and environmental advocate, traces his personal journeys from the Siberia to Mexico to learn more about the California gray whale and humankind's threats to these giant creatures.

Russell intertwines his natural history with the life of Captain Charles Melville Scammon, who in the mid-1800s helped hunt gray whales to near extinction after discovering their winter residence in the lagoons of Baja California. Scammon then became a naturalist and wrote a book that remains a standard reference.

Kill them or love them - that seems to have been the history of humans' relationship with whales.

Russell's personal whale epiphany came at San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja, where he went eyeball to eyeball with a friendly mother whale and her calf. His book also describes the fight to stop Mitsubishi, the giant Japanese conglomerate, from building a salt works at the lagoon that might have ruined the whale's nursery.

But the book has much more, describing other threats to the gray whale, such as indigenous people who want to reclaim their whaling heritage, albeit with an anti-tank gun; and the Japanese government's drive to restore commercial whaling.

A must read for save-the-whale fans.

- Bill Becher

LOVE OF LURES - On the Internet

Call it ``The Love Boat'' meets ``Jimmy Houston Outdoors.'' That's what C.A.S.T. is all about, bringing husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends together through bass. The Texas-based Couples Association of Sports Tournaments has its own Web site (www.fishcast.com).

How's this for romantic? Bob and Jeanne Rains of Eastland, Texas, were crowned ``Hot Couple on Lake Brady'' after they won the tournament, finishing just ahead of fellow Texans James and Robbie Crenshaw, who said the fishing was ``the hardest they've had in years; you had to work for each bite and could not afford to miss any fish.''

Alas, neither Bob and Jeanne nor James and Robbie could proclaim themselves ``Couple of the Year'' for 2002. That honor ``was a long, hard-fought battle for the members. We had several lead changes throughout the season. ... At the season finale, Jimmy and Karen Williams came out on top.''

The proof is in the picture, two to be exact: Jimmy and Karen dressed in rain gear and posing with their trophies in one shot, and a lunker bass in the other.

--Land's end: Want to cruise without any water? Try land sailing and the North America Land Sailing Association's Web site (www.nalsa.org). Founded in 1972, NALSA's World LandYacht Championships were held at Ivanpah Drylake near the California-Nevada border southeast of Las Vegas.

- Chris Cocoles

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