Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed
 

BRISBANE, Australia - Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed Monday by a stingray barb during a diving expedition, Australian media reported. He was 44.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/..._tv/obit_irwin

Dag :( My prayers go out to his family.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This can't be true. I love him so much. :( When I went to Australia in high school I had no clue who he was until we went to his zoo and got to meet him and I have loved him ever since; he never fails to crack me up. This is so sad. :(

We watch his programs everyday at home. I love his show. At least he died doing what he loved.

Rest in Peace Steve Irwin. May God be with your friends and family.

Carolyn

No way :(

:( that's messed up, for real.

:(

Is this the guy who had his new born baby in his arms while messing with an alligator?

That's sad. I liked watching his adventures.

The death was ironic though: "It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a stingray and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.

He worked with dangerous animals all the time that would very easily bite, but then to be taken by a rare freak accident... I feel terrible for his wife and kids.

Yep.

:( He died doing what he loved best though. He did alot for animal conservation and environmentalism and I hope his wife continues his work.

I thought it was a joke when I saw the headline :( It's so sad, and such an odd way to die. You'd think he would have been eaten by a croc or something. Rest in peace, Steve.

:( Rest in peace Steve

Yeah, I just saw a video of stingrays swimming around on CNN. They don't look *that* harmful. Are they poisonous? Sorry, I know very little about ocean animals.

There was a rumor circulating many years ago (I think back in 99/00) that he was dead. When I first saw the headline, I thought it may have been another rumor. Unfortunately, it's true. So sad. :(

Stingrays are poisonous. Their tail has venom. I was in the Caymen Islands a few years back and went swimming with them. The tour guides made sure everyone knew not to put their feet down when they were in the water. Most humans who are stung by them are stung through their foot.

:( So sad.

They are poisonous, but the venmon is more uncomfortable for humans then deadly. What actually is the problem is the barb itself. That can cause serious damage, and from what I read he was stung through his heart so it punctured his heart- which has a very very slim chance of survival since usually that means the oxygenated and nonoxygentated blood starts mixing. Usually, they are very calm animals.

I can't believe he died. So sad.:(

:( I hate to hear that. His shows were very informative and entertaining.

RIP Steve
Best of wishes to his family and friends....

YUP, that be him!
i just read it on yahoo and was like WHAT?! :confused:

my heart goes out to his family

I first saw this news on my myspace, when a friend of mine posted a bulletin. But I didn't believe it and thought it was just one of those phoney boloney bulletins. That is, until I went to yahoo and saw it there.

Man, i'm heart-broken. I loved watching Steve and he seemed so happy doing what he was doing. Its one of those "freak accidents" those that people say, you have a better chance winning the lottery and getting hit by lightning than getting killed by a stingray and he was just in the right position to get killed.

I believe that his wife will continue doing what Steve and her loved to do.

RIP Steve Irwin

RIP Steve

That is so sad. my son loves to watch his shows. :(

The only thing I remember about that guy is when he held his 4 month old son over a crock in a show....he actually thought he had 100% control over that animal.

How terrible! Not to be flippant, but if it was his time to go, I'm sure he would have rather died the way he did than, say, in a plane crash or from a disease. It seems a fitting (if premature) end for someone who lived larger than life.

RIP, Steve.

It's sad, but the man was incredibly reckless. I feel for his family, but he did some incredibly stupid things in his career. How odd that a barb from a stingray ended his life. I wonder if Jack Hanna is rubbing his hands together with glee at the increase in market share...

For what it's worth, the rays at your local zoos and aquariums have had their barbs removed prior to becoming part of the petting zoo exhibit, so it is still perfectly safe to pet and feed them at the feeding pools at SeaWorld, the Long Beach Aquarium, etc. Just watch your fingers.

RIP Steve.

Yeah...I was saddened by the news temporarily (honestly). My heart goes out to his wife and two children.

I agree - at least he died doing what he loved...

I was so shocked to read about this on Yahoo.

He died doing something he loved but I first thought they were going to say that he was killed by a crocodile. Then I was going to be like "see...leave those damn animals alone...died playing with some animals." He still died by playing with animals...or was he not messing with the stingray when it killed him?

Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.

The irony is quite sad. Not to mention that while stingray's are potentially deadly, it is rare to be killed by one because of the location of most of the stings.

"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time.


Ouch. This is so rare and such a case of "bad luck."

Jack is slated to appear on Larry King Live tomorrow. Also, to appear will be Steve's manager and friend.
:(

Not likely.

Here's his comment:

"Wild animal expert Jack Hanna, who frequently appears on TV with his subjects, offered praise for Irwin.

"Steve was one of these guys, we thought of him as invincible," Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium, told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday.

"The guy was incredible. His knowledge was incredible," Hanna said. "Some people that are doing this stuff are actors and that type of thing, but Steve was truly a zoologist, so to speak, a person who knew what he was doing. Yes, he did things a lot of people wouldn't do. I think he knew what he was doing."

They'll probably be on tomorrow as well, but Jack Hanna and Jeff Corwin were on Larry King Live tonight talking about Steve Irwin.

From what i've heard about this situation was that, Steve Irwin was just swimming OVER the stingray, when the barb shot out and went up through his ribcage. Poor guy wasn't really "messing" with the animal, just trying to swim over it.

That is crazy.

He has a history of getting too close and messing with animals. If he wasn't messing with this stingray, it is really sad that the one of few times that he was behaving himself, the animal "lashed out" and killed him.

There are several types of stingrays, the one that he was stung by was much larger than the ones that tend to borrow on the ocean floor close to the beach....the one he was stung by has a stinger about a foot long...he probably would have died anyway whether or not it was venomous b/c the sting actually pierced a hole through his heart.

He was practically swimming on top of it at the time of the sting....so anything that you get that close to, you definately increase your chances for attack.

Apparently his whole death was caught on tape and they turned the footage over to the police...being realistic...how long before you think it will be on Youtube or something like that:(

Irwin pulled stingray barb from his chest
Ian Gerard and Tony Koch
September 05, 2006
A LIFE-long friend of Steve Irwin today told how the Crocodile Hunter pulled a deadly stingray barb from his own chest before losing consciousness and dying.

Friend John Stainton said he had viewed footage of his friend's last moments and the images were "shocking".

"It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... and it's terrible," he said.

"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone. That was it. The cameraman had to shut down."

The footage of the fatal attack on the Great Barrier Reef has been handed to Queensland police as fans worldwide come to grips with the "freak" death.

Irwin, 44, was killed almost instantly when the stingray stabbed him in the heart with its poisonous 20cm barb as he snorkelled off Port Douglas, in north Queensland, yesterday morning.

As tributes and salutes poured in from around the world, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would get a state funeral if that's what his family wanted.

On the election campaign trail in Hervey Bay, Mr Beattie said the Governemnt was considering the possibility of naming a national park after the flamboyant naturalist.

"We want to make certain that ... there's a fitting long-term tribute to Steve Irwin and it may well be we can do all sorts of things like name a national park, we could have particular awards, all sorts of things," the Premier said.

Irwin's American-born wife, Terri, was trekking in Tasmania's Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair National Park when the news broke of her husband's death and last night flew back to Queensland with her two children Bindi, 8, and Bob, 2.

The diveboat's owner Peter West also saw the footage.

"There was no blood in the water, it was not that obvious ... something happened with this animal that made it rear and he was at the wrong position at the wrong time and if it hit him anywhere else we would not be talking about a fatality," said Mr West.

Irwin was shooting a documentary on dangerous marine life, in shallow water at Batt Reef, about 32 nautical miles offshore, at about 11am.

Tributes poured in from around the world for Irwin, a renowned environmentalist who was estimated to be earning more than $4million a year from his Queensland reptile park, Australia Zoo.

Footage of the attack shows Irwin swimming above a 2.5m stingray before it turns on him and sends a poisonous barb through his heart.

Irwin was pulled from the water by a cameraman and a crewman, put on an inflatable tender and taken to a support boat about 500m away.

Crewmembers say he was barely conscious in the minutes after the sting and died as his production team rushed him to his vessel, Croc One, and to a nearby island for emergency treatment.

A charter dive boat crew desperately tried to revive him on the beach, but were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards by Queensland Rescue Service officers, who had flown to the area by helicopter.

Irwin's body was last night flown to Cairns where a post-mortem examination this morning confirmed Irwin was killed when the poisonous barb on the stingray's tail pierced his chest. Police have seized all available evidence and interviewed witnesses in order to prepare a report for the Coroner.

A coronial inquest is expected.

Producer, director and life-long friend John Stainton yesterday said Irwin did not provoke the stingray and was simply swimming above it when he was attacked.

"He came over the top of a stingray and the stingray barb went up and into his chest and into his heart," Stainton said.

"It's likely that he possibly died instantly when the barb hit him, and I hope he felt no pain."

One of Irwin's contemporaries, internationally known cameraman and spearfisherman Ben Cropp, was in his own boat off Port Douglas when Irwin was killed.

"I have just spoken to a cameraman friend who was there and has seen the footage," Mr Cropp told The Australian last night.

"He was up in the shallow water, probably 1.5m to 2m deep, following a bull ray which was about a metre across the body - probably weighing about 100kg, and it had quite a large spine.

"The cameraman was filming in the water."

Mr Cropp said the stingray was spooked and went into defensive mood.

"It probably felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead, and it felt there was danger and it baulked.

"It stopped and went into a defensive mode and swung its tail with the spike.

"Steve unfortunately was in a bad position and copped it.

"I have had that happen to me, and I can visualise it - when a ray goes into defensive, you get out of the way.

"Steve was so close he could not get away, so if you can imagine it - being right beside the ray and it swinging its spine upwards from underneath Steve - and it hit him.

"I have seen that sort of reaction with rays - with their tail breaking the water, such is the force."

Internationally renowned jellyfish sting expert Jamie Seymour was on board Irwin's boat at the time.

Irwin had decided yesterday morning to shoot a segment of film on stingrays for a new television program that will be hosted by his daughter, Bindi.

Surf Lifesavers national marine stinger adviser Lisa-Ann Gershwin said there had only been 17 fatal stingray attacks worldwide.
"I think it's just an extraordinary freak accident that has happened to his heart," she said.

"A lot of people will be afraid by this, but they need to keep in mind that this was a freak accident, it was a terrible tragedy but it is not common."

Dr Gershwin said stingray stings to the legs or arms were common and, while painful, were not normally considered dangerous. She said there were many different types of stingrays, with barbs on their tails up to 30cm long, and they poisoned victims with a range of toxins.

Mr West said the barb was like a "very rough knife" and while fatal stingray stings had been known to occur, filming and swimming alongside the animal was commonplace among marine filmmakers.

Mr Cropp said he was told that the strike was "close to the heart and Steve had a cardiac arrest".

"At first they treated him as being wounded, but he didn't survive unfortunately," he said.

"The second boat in attendance raced in to give assistance and they radioed for help.

"They went into Low Isle and met the chopper which took Steve's body out."

In September 2004, Mr Cropp was attacked by a tiger shark on Bott Reef. "The rays in Australia and particularly in the north are not like those on the Cayman Islands, which are very quiet and allow people to ride on their backs," he said.

"At this time of the year they are on the lookout for tiger sharks and are very frisky.

"They are not aggressive. In fact they are very timid, but they defend themselves by throwing their tail spine upwards, and there is a spike on the tip about eight inches long which they can use like a dagger."

The Source:
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/20...tml&frame=true

should the tape be released?
 

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=232744&GT1=7703

"If I'm going to die," the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said in a 2002 interview, "at least I want it filmed."

He spoke with his usual humor, and clearly had no idea what would happen four years later. But the fact is, a tape does exist of Irwin's fatal encounter with a stingray while filming a TV show. And so the question arises: In the age of instant Web videos, might it get out? And in the broader sense, is making footage of a death public ever justified?

For its part, Discovery Communications, the network where Irwin became a star, said there was absolutely no truth to rumors that the footage, now in possession of police in Queensland, Australia, might be released.

But that doesn't mean there aren't concerns that someone could attempt to get their hands on it and publicize it for lurid means — or just to show they had it. That, said media analyst Martin Kaplan, would be tantamount to a snuff film.

... rest of the article on the link...

Sad, but really, he did know these animals were dangerous.

I'm confused!!!

I don't know if i'm reading the article correctly or not, but how could he die instantly but still pull the barb out himself?

Some very touching cartoons on/about Steve Irwin here:
http://cagle.com/news/SteveIrwin/

I believe he pulled the barb because it was poisonous. The longer it was in his system, the more poison he'd get. I don't think he could have known that it was imbedded in his heart. The heart itself doesn't have nerve endings to feel that sort of thing.

I believe the family has said that they'd want the film released.