Crocodile Hunter dies from stingray sting

[Inkara1]

BRISBANE, Australia Sep 4, 2006 (AP)— Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.
Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin was diving near Low Isles near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane.
A helicopter carrying paramedics flew to the island, but he died from a stingray barb to the heart, ABC reported on its Web site.
Telephone calls to Australia Zoo, Irwin's zoo in southern Queensland, were not immediately answered.
Irwin is famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter," which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

full story here

 

[spike]

That's too bad. What a shame.

 

[Spirit]

Wow... that's sad

 

[Camelyn]

Oh man...He has 2 little kids

 

[BeardofPants]

Wow, I never thought he'd die from something like that.

RIP.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Kinda like the dude who popularized jogging punted out from a coronary...while jogging...

Never watched the show m'self, too damn many snakes. Sucks though. Guess he had decent insurance.

 

[spike]

My toe is still a little messed up from getting hit by a stingray a couple weeks ago. I didn't know they could kill a man. A shot in the chest is something else though.

 

[tonksy]

How awful.
I always knew he'd be killed by a croc or a snake...this was a big surprise.

 

[chcr]

My toe is still a little messed up from getting hit by a stingray a couple weeks ago. I didn't know they could kill a man. A shot in the chest is something else though.

Article says it put a hole in his heart. Probably put some of the poison in there too. Too bad but it always seemed inevitable to me.

 

[unclehobart]

Kinda like the dude who popularized jogging punted out from a coronary...while jogging...

Never watched the show m'self, too damn many snakes. Sucks though. Guess he had decent insurance.

That would be Jim Fixx. He also wrote several brainteaser/logic puzzle books.

 

[Cerise]

That is terrible. He was a very personable man, and very enthusiastic about his work. He lived his life doing what he loved to do, and went out that way. We should all be so lucky. Prayers to his family.

 

[Gonz]

He died doing what he loved. It's sad but there could hardly be a better way.

 

[A.B.Normal]

He died doing what he loved. It's sad but there could hardly be a better way.

Finally something we agree on,but what a loss for his family and us critter lovers.

 

[BB]

you know...it's funny ... seen a bit of his shows, not much , but saw a pic on the web today, him and his wife and daughter .. they all looked so happy - mainly his daughter- and you just imagined (she looked 3 or 4 or so in the pic) how much she loves her dad and probably what a great dad he was to her ...esp at that age ... and you think of home and those you love of that age ...

dunno ...but it seemed to hit a chord with me ...for a momment i just looked at that little girl, and to a lesser degree his wife ...

..and well, it's a funny thing, ain't it?

someone you never met, nor really to any degree cared about??

But that pic, that momment of thought, well...i dunno for sure.

 

[Gonz]

A broken family is always a sad tale. At least this time the was no choice.

 

[Professur]

Did someone cue the leaches?

News of Irwin’s death spread quickly, and tributes flowed from all quarters of society.

At Australia Zoo at Beerwah, south Queensland, floral tributes were dropped at the entrance, where a huge fake crocodile gapes. Drivers honked their horns as they passed.

“Steve, from all God’s creatures, thank you. Rest in peace,” was written on a card with a bouquet of native flowers.

“We’re all very shocked. I don’t know what the zoo will do without him. He’s done so much for us, the environment and it’s a big loss,” said Paula Kelly, a local resident and volunteer at the zoo, after dropping off a wreath at the gate.

 

[Gonz]

Did someone cue the leaches?

Yep. Even his death begets politics.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin - killed by a stingray barb through the chest - was a victim of 'voyeuristic wildlife TV', fellow experts said today.

Source

 

[A.B.Normal]

Did someone cue the leaches?

I don't know what your getting at?.Australia Zoo was started by Steve's Dad and was a Family run operation.

 

[Professur]

And now people who never met him, and probably would never have stopped to help if he had something as simple as a flat tire (although they sure would have slowed down to rubber neck) all want to act as though they lost something.

 

[Professur]

Crocodile Hunter's Death Caught on Video

By BRIAN CASSEY

Associated Press Writer

CAIRNS, Australia — Videotape of Steve Irwin's last moments shows him pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest but no evidence that he had provoked the fish, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for TV's beloved "Crocodile Hunter."

Irwin, 44, who made a career out of getting dangerously close to deadly beasts, was stabbed through the heart Monday while swimming with the stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.


John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the crew on the reef, said the fatal blow that came while Irwin was snorkeling was caught on videotape, and described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.

"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," Stainton told reporters in the Queensland state city of Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.

Police were holding the tape as evidence for a coroner's inquiry — a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.

Experts agree human deaths caused by stingrays are extremely rare and speculate the stingray may have felt trapped between the cameraman and the TV star.

But Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray, a normally placid species that only deploys its poisonous tail spines as a defense.

Stainton said Irwin was in his element in the Outback, but that he and Irwin had talked about the sea posing threats the star wasn't used to.

"If ever he was going to go, we always said it was going to be the ocean," Stainton said. "On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Irwin's American wife, Terri, and two young children returned late Monday from a trekking vacation in Tasmania to Australia Zoo, the wildlife park where the family lived at Beerwah in Queensland's southeast.

Australia Zoo was open Tuesday — staff said it was what he would have wanted — but the mood was somber and most visitors paid respects at a makeshift shrine of bouquets and handwritten condolence messages at the gate.

"Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another. Khaki shirts — a trademark of Irwin — were laid out for people to sign.

Parliament interrupted its normal schedule so lawmakers could pay tribute to Irwin, whose body was flown home Tuesday from Cairns. No funeral plans were announced but state Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would be afforded a state funeral if his family agreed.

"He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.

Irwin was propelled to global fame after his TV shows, in which he regularly wrestled with crocodiles and went face-to-face with poisonous snakes and other wild animals, were shown around world on the Discovery Channel.

The network announced plans for a marathon screening of Irwin's work and a wildlife fund in his name.

"Rarely has the world embraced an animal enthusiast and conservationist as they did Steve Irwin," Discovery Networks International President Dawn McCall said in a statement.

Source


*presses the button on the stopwatch*