It has all the ingredients of the perfect Aussie tale: a swimming kangaroo, a hero surfer, and two hungry hammerhead sharks.

An early morning jog with his son along a Queensland beach on Tuesday turned into a life-saving mission for Australian entrepreneur John McCallum, when a small kangaroo bounded in front of him and jumped straight into the sea.

“Suddenly at the waters edge he just dives into the ocean and starts swimming out to sea, it was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, we were totally dumbfounded,” Mr McCallum told The Times.

“A man was walking past and he said to me: ‘Gee your dog’s swimming out a long way’, and I said: ‘that’s not a dog, mate, it’s a kangaroo’.”

Within minutes the kangaroo was caught in a dangerous ocean rip, about 200 yards offshore. As he watched, Mr McCallum remembered there had been two hammerhead sharks sighted off the beach, on the Gold Coast in southern Queensland, earlier in the week.

“I realised if we didn’t do something, that little roo would either drown or become lunch for some big hungry fish,” he said.

So he decided to act fast. He ran back to the family home, situated further up Kirra Beach, grabbed his surfboard and headed back to rescue the roo – but not before waking his wife and asking her to grab the video camera.

“I tried to get the kangaroo on my board a few times but he slipped off, so then I herded it over to a sand bar and he hopped through the water,” Mr McCallum, 48, said.

“When he finally got back to the beach he just collapsed, the poor thing had been swimming for 20 minutes and was absolutely exhausted. But after a while he got back up and bounded back off down the beach – but not before he looked back at me, staring at me straight in the eyes, as if to say: ‘thanks for that mate’. Or maybe he was saying: ‘you just wrecked my morning swim’.”

Kangaroo expert Pat O’Brien, from the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, said the fact that the bush-dwelling marsupials can swim is a well-kept secret.

He said during the recent floods in Queensland a kangaroo was found by fishermen swimming seven miles offshore after being swept out to sea by floodwaters.

“They are actually very good swimmers and even though people might not see it, they seem to go swimming quite often,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Sometimes they appear to go into water so they can get rid of ticks, but we have also found that they go into the water fairly frequently and sometimes they seem to just like to go swimming to get from A to B.”

Despite their large, bottom-heavy size, the marsupials appear to be quite powerful swimmers – both in freshwater and in the ocean. They use their small arms to perform a dog paddle-style stroke while paddling underwater with their strong hind legs.

“I’m sure their big tail would be good for steering too,” Mr O’Brien joked.

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Entropy Surfboards, a division of Entropy Sports, Amroy Europe (Amroy) Ltd., and Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) LLC have teamed up to deliver a new line of custom-made surfboards that incorporate carbon nanotubes from BMS.

Entropy Surfboards believes that epoxy systems are the future of and a key ingredient in making a more durable and lively surfboard. For that reason, the company is using Hybtonite®, an advanced epoxy system from Amroy that incorporates Baytubes® carbon nanotubes from BMS, resulting in composite structures that are tougher and more durable than standard epoxy systems. The surfboards combine performance and durability with the traditional feel of a custom-shaped board. The dimensions and weight of the boards will vary per the specifications of each customer.

The basic construction process for surfboards has remained basically unchanged for over 50 years, making customers very particular about how their boards look and feel. The core consists of a type of foam with a stringer made of wood or plastic that spans from the nose to the tail, and is then wrapped in fiberglass. It is the final step that sets Entropy surfboards apart from traditional boards, when the Hybtonite system is used. The incorporation of BMS’ Baytubes carbon nanotubes allows Entropy to achieve increased toughness without sacrificing the flex properties of the board.

The epoxy systems used in Entropy Surfboards, as well as other Entropy Sports high performance products and materials, are lab tested at the Berkeley Composites Lab on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Entropy surfboards, featuring various materials, shapes and construction methods, are also tested year round in a variety of surf conditions.

“The Bayer carbon nanotubes increase durability by a factor of two to three, while also decreasing the fatigue that is often seen in traditional boards subjected to everyday conditions,” said Rey Banatao of Entropy. “Because of the benefits they offer, we decided to pursue using carbon nanotubes in our products once they became available and affordable.”

“BMS has succeeded in producing high-quality carbon nanotubes in a cost-effective process,” said Joe Ventura, business development manager, Baytubes carbon nanotubes, Bayer MaterialScience LLC. “As a result, our Baytubes are helping create entirely new materials with revolutionary properties for applications, like the Entropy Surfboard, in numerous fields.”

Bayer MaterialScience LLC is one of the leading producers of polymers and high-performance plastics in North America and is part of the global Bayer MaterialScience business with nearly 15,100 employees at 30 sites around the world and 2008 sales of 9.7 billion euros. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction, medical, and sports and leisure industries.

Bayer Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a subsidiary of Bayer AG, an international health care, nutrition and high-tech materials group based in Leverkusen, Germany. In North America, Bayer had 2008 net sales of approximately 8 billion euros (about $12 billion) and employed 17,000 at year end. Bayer’s three subgroups, Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience and Bayer MaterialScience, improve people’s lives through a broad range of essential products that help diagnose, prevent and treat diseases; protect crops and enhance yields; and advance automobile safety and durability. For more information, go to www.bayerus.com.

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A article recently published by San Diego State University (SDSU), argues that cigarette butts should have new disposal requirements and be labeled “hazardous waste” because they are non-biodegradable and filled with residues, tars, and particulate.

SDSU Public Health Professor, Tom Novotny, says cigarette butts are the number one littered substance in the world and that “when they unconsciously throw their butts onto the ground, it’s not just litter, it’s a toxic hazardous waste product.”

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