Wow, Juliet, I didn't know Rays were that strong. Yikes.
His friend said that after the ray stabbed him that Steve stood up,(the water was shallow enough) pulled it out, and then fell over. It happened pretty quick.
If someone get stabbed by a knife, they're not supposed to take it out, but with an animal hanging off of him, he probably was in shock. :(
I believe the animal released its stinger into him, so it wasn't still attached. If Steve was able to stand up, then they were in very shallow water - and reports were that he was only snorkeling, not diving, so that makes sense. Just the shadows overhead of himself and the cameraman could be enough to spook a ray. Once diving in the Caribbean we had a 12-year old boy with us who got stung and he immediately went into shock and was bleeding profusely. Luckily for him, the gash was near his ankle. He hadn't necessarily stepped on the ray - he was on scuba - but he somehow accidentally in all the commotion (there were many of them looking for food handouts) he must have startled it or put a fin on or near its stinger. God, if only it had entered even Irwin's shoulder perhaps he would still be alive - what a tragic loss of a great man.
I saw this morning that he pulled it out, which probably made the bleeding worse, but since there IS venom on it, if he didn't pull it out, the venom would go right into the heart. The article described the injury as "not survivable". Anywhere else, even a lung, and maybe he'd have had a chance, but where it struck....
This whole thing is getting confusing now, because I noticed this morning that many papers are reporting that Irwin pulled the barb from his chest. Last night on Larry King Live, Irwin's manager and close friend (who was there when it happened,) told Larry that the hype about Irwin pulling the barb from his chest was not true, and called the rumor absolute rubbish...
One paper also reported that Terri Irwin returned from Tunisia with both of their children. Larry King and CCN both report that daughter Bindi was with her dad working on a children's special (but was not present at the time of her father's accident.)
Who knows??
I just hope that Terri and the children are finding what comfort they can, and they they will somehow be able to move forward and still find happiness in life.
It was sad to hear, but I can't say it surprised me. When I first heard, I only cuaght the last part of the headline running on a ticker, saying "killed while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef". I immediately wondered if the person in question was Irwin, since he's spent so much time with deadly animals. What I find most sad is that his son is likely too young to have any lasting memories of his father.
I also never realized that rays could be so dangerous. I petted some at the London Aquarium, and I don't remember any warnings about possible injuries.
I bet at those exhibits (I've seen them in various places), they've removed the barbs.Originally Posted by Antilles
unfortunately it happend in a blink of an eye... the medics didn't have time to even know what happened before he was gone...
Discovery is running a 'in memory' ad on their network... it's popped up a couple of times today...
One article speculates that it was the photographer who was filming above and in front of the ray that might have spooked it.
This is kind of sad to me. Speculation of this sort at this point can only hurt the surviving members of the documentary team, including the photographer, who must feel shock and grief and perhaps some guilt already. A young, healthy, and larger-than-life man is killed in an instant in their party, and it is impossible to save him. There is going to be people having feelings of "Well, if we just did this...." or "what if ...." already. I hope that no one, like the photographer, will have added pressure or guilt placed on them for what was just an unfortunate, one in a million freak accident. :(
I completely agree. These animals, while 'friendly' when in packs, are pretty skittish when solo. The first time I dove with them years ago we had a videographer and we purposely approached one that was buried under the sand - you could spot it by two black discs (eyes) just above the sand. The point in 'approaching' it was that it does startle - and then quite magestically and instantaneously rises out of the sand, shakes itself off, and swims away. This has probably been done a zillion times by videographers as it is beautiful to behold, and the stingrays don't get aggressive. I think being in such shallow water Irwin was just in the wrong place at the wrong time - a bit deeper and there may have been enough distance between himself and the spooked ray.
I'll shortly be putting up the scuba diving photos from my trip with Alexander Abt on the IFS website and on my own site - in the ones on my site there will be a couple with stingrays and you can easily see that at least these stingrays were very friendly and engaging in human contact - sometimes definitely closer than we were comfortable with - but not in an aggressive way, just in a 'looking for food' way.
Last edited by Zanzibar; 09-06-2006 at 02:31 AM.
A little bit OT, Z, but...is there ANYTHING that you haven't done?
A little bit OT, Z, but...is there ANYTHING that you haven't done?
Well MM, you've got to keep these skaters entertained!
But really, on a serious note, I'm a wimp. That's why I so admired Irwin - such a fearless guy - or maybe that's the wrong word....such a courageous guy. He just seemed like the kind of person who could have gotten through anything - like if there was a nuclear holocaust/natural disaster/war....he'd be the guy to have by your side to try and survive.
As a very successful man once said in to me in a 2004 interview, "It's the golden bullet you don't see coming that get's you." That was tragically so true in Steve Irwin's death. Who would imagine a stingray....would strike a blow....right to the heart.
Yes, he would have been the guy to have in a foxhole with you. I'd feel alot safer. It's still a shock, it hasn't sunk in completely, yet.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks