Ningaloo Reef book nominated

The Ningaloo Reef will feature at this year’s Australian Book Industry Academy Awards with Exmouth regular Leith Holtzman’s book receiving a nomination.

Ningaloo: Reflections on the Reef is an interactive book filled with anecdotes, images and information about whale shark and their associated industry.

Mr Holtzman has been spending his summers swimming with whale sharks along the Ningaloo for more than a decade.

He described the book as unique, considering it is the first informative book to be written about the Ningaloo in more than 20 years.

Readers can scan QR codes in the pages with their phones and watch video footage taken by Mr Holtzman during his time swimming with the largest fish in the world.

“(It has) about 20 videos that go with the book at roughly three minutes each so it’s almost an hour’s worth of footage,” he said.

“I also did a lot of research (to provide) the factual part of it but then I was able to add my stories and the things I’ve seen in these 10 years to give it that first-hand account that makes it a little bit more interesting.”

Nominations will be short-listed by a panel of industry experts and winners will be announced at a ceremony in Sydney on May 19.