Steve Irwin Dies
 

BRISBANE, Australia - 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.



This is something I really wasnt expecting , Really sad :(

Steve Irwin has died!!!
 

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.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

Irwin had received some negative publicity in recent years. In January 2004, he stunned onlookers at his Australia Zoo reptile park by carrying his 1-year-old son into a crocodile pen during a wildlife show. He tucked the infant under one arm while tossing the 13-foot reptile a piece of meat with the other.

Authorities declined to charge Irwin for violating safety regulations.

Later that year, he was accused of getting too close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales in Antarctica while making a documentary. Irwin denied any wrongdoing, and an Australian Environment Department investigation recommended no action be taken against him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/...v/obit_irwin_5

Raph's Girl note: A Stingray! Everybody thought it was the Crocs that would do it...but nope...a relative of a shark! :o You were well loved Steve...well loved...we'll miss ya for sure.

Well fu*k. My whole family loved Steve Irwin. I guess I was right. It was something he wasn't too experienced with that got him. He knew the crocs too well. This is a sad day. :(

*edit* Threads merged. They both hit 3 minutes apart.

Poor Steve... Any word on where we can send letters of condolence?

Oh man...Terri doesn't even know either...she's somewhere in the Tasmanian Mountains and they're having a hard time trying to get in contact with her! :o

This has been a sad year for the zoo...first their oldest tortoise dies and now Steve! :(

:(

I loved that guy. I can't believe he's dead.

At least he died doing what he loved. RIP Steve.

This is sad, He was crazy, But very likable, He will surely be missed.

The Crocodile Hunter was nuts - I loved him!!! What other guy would get out of a moving vehicle just to run over to one of the world's most lethal snakes to pick it up; or put his head in a croc's mouth; or play with scorpions, giant cockroaches and other dangerous and creepy things.

He made it all look so easy and cool - but in the end maybe he thought it was just a little too easy. This was probably his preferred way to go - killed in action. RIP Steve!

I was shocked when I heard this on the radio after school today. Honestly, a world without Steve Irwin is hard to imagine, but it is happening. :( As much as I disliked his over-the-top act when preforming, he was conserving the Australian environment and helping preserve wildlife, and for that, I loved him. I was expecting this a few years down the track, but not right now. All the same, I hope his wife and kids will cope fine with this. I mean, Binda (the eldest child) loved her dad. I mean, he was the Croc Hunter! The thing that made Australia in the past decade.

Also, as a little note (since I'm living right near the heart of the action), they tried to revive him in hospital, but all of their attempts failed. Sting-ray stings can be as deadly as a venomous snake bite. One guy took 16 months just so then a wound could heal over. Rest In Peace, Steve. We will sorely miss you here :cry:

Here is the address for "Australia Zoo". I guess that's where you can send letters.

Glass House Mountains Tourist Drive
Beerwah
Queensland 4519
Australia

If you want to e-mail them, you can just send it to here - www.australiazoo.com.au

Not sure if that helps, but I hope that it benifits someone...

Rest in Peace man

http://www.cairnsnewspapers.com.au/e...loads/A304.JPG

I feel really bad for Bindi, l'il Bob and Teri...

This just depresses the hell out of me. :cry:

I don't want to sound like an insensitive prick, but in my opinion, he kinda asked for it. Annoying animals, mistreating the hell out of them. If you're gonna do reckless stuff like bug a baby crocodlie RIGHT IN FRONT of its mother, you can't expect them not to retalliate.

Those are EXACTLY my thoughts. Of course this is sad but I'm sure someone like Irwin was always prepared for death.

Still, it's kind of surreal, all the same. I mean, we all joked that it would probably happen...And now it has, and it's a very strange feeling.

Mistreating animals? The dude was probably the biggest animal lover on the planet. Saying it was bound to happen eventually is one thing, but to say he was 'asking for it' is just crap, and really, let's not get into that here.

It's still sad, though. I loved Steve. LOVED him. The world has lost someone bright and wonderful and... so passionate about animals and saving them. Too few people are like that.

Rest in peace, Steve-O. We'll all miss you.

My condolences to Teri and Bindi and Bob.

You do sound like an insensitive prick. He knows crocs, he was like one of them, he knew what and how they would react. What got him was a startled ray, I wouldnt doubt he was allergic to the venom in the sting and never knew it.
He didn't annoy animals and mistreat them. How can you say that when he would go to a war torn country and build a city's crocodile, who was living in filth, build him a brand new more suitable enclosure on his own money? Or build one of the best zoological gardens? I knew alot about reptiles before watching him, I know more because of his work. He's an animal lover's hero.
I hope he's up there were his mom, Suie and his tortoise Harriet who left this world earlier this year.

Steve Irwin had a great deal of respect and love for animals. Every bit of Croc Hunter profits went into conservation work. It's what he lived for, and it's what he died for. He might have been a modern gladiator-- facing death for our edification and entertainment-- but he knew what he was doing. And I say that both as an animal scientist and as an admirer of people who try to make a difference in the world, be that difference big or small. And Steve Irwin made no small difference.

ETA: From the people I've talked to who know a little about rays, this had to have been freak accident. This is only the third sting ray death in all of Australia's history, and many people go to Oz expressly to swim the reefs and similar marine ecotourism.

It's a shame he died, really. But I just don't find it all that surprising.

If every day I go out and slap a grizzly bear in the face, chances are he's eventually going to kill me.

Steve Irwin made a career out of doing crazy stunts with dangerous animals and eventually one killed him. It was inevitable. Sort've like a soldier. They go out and risk their lives for a living so it's not really surprising when they get killed. Sad? Absolutely. But it doesn't surprise the socks off me.

Still, I did enjoy his antics and I will miss him.

Did he jam his thumb up it's butthole? :P

*sighs*

So... the Croc Hunter finally became the prey. That really sucks.

I wonder just how many animals, reptiles and insects he 'hunted' during his adventures. Probably a Titanic-load, for sure.

It always happens when you LEAST expect it. Always. The fact that I stopped watching the show before he died proves my theory. Now, I feel like such an idiot.

I wonder how is this gonna affect Australia? I hope they learned a lot from him. I know I did.

See you in the afterlife, Steve.

CRIKEY!!!!8)