Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin Dies | Golden Skate

Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin Dies

nubka

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
I'm in shock, too! It just doesn't seem possible. My prayers go out to his wife and two children.
 

Piel

On Edge
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
How sad. My heart breaks for his wife and children. Maybe that he died doing something he loved will give them comfort.
 

Kasey

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
It is shock. It's surreal. I'm watching Animal Planet a little while ago, and a commercial comes on for a Croc hunter show later today....the announcer says "The croc hunter pushes his luck with......blah blah blah". Push his luck maybe, yes. But the man did a great deal for conservation and education, and reached a great number of people with his message. His poor family, he was far too young. I'm glad he at least died doing what he loved....for what little consolation that is.
 

Zanzibar

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 22, 2003
Steve Irwin was a wonderful, wonderful man and I'll admit I had a crush on him for years. Reports regarding his wife are conflicting - the local news still reported at 6:00 am CST that his wife still had not been informed as she was hiking in a remote area outside of Australia, yet a news article from Australia released a few hours ago quoted Irwin's best friend as saying that he had told his wife of the tragedy. It sounds like they were able to reach her. What a huge loss.

We just dove with some enormous stingrays last winter for an Adventures Off Ice story and it's easy to forget around these normally gentle creatures that they have the potential to be deadly. I hope his family can take some solace that he died doing what he loved, and that thankfully it wasn't from a crocodile, the animal he worked so hard to protect.
 
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iluvtodd

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Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
What a shock and horrible loss for his family. :cry: May he rest in peace.
 

Blue Bead

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Oh, man! Oh, wow!! This is a complete shock. What a loss! He was Evel Knievel and Indiana Jones all wrapped into one. At least he died doing what he loved. His TV specials always brought out the most interesting facets of the animals he sought to capture--the kinds of things one would never see from zoo animals. He will be missed.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
The odds were so against dying this way. Based on all I've read so far, the venom isn't deadly to humans and it just happened to puncture his heart.
 

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I just caught a little bit of that on tv and don't know what happened. Did a croc get him?
 

Wolfgang

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 9, 2006
Something odd must've happened, stingrays are not normally aggressive, and will strike only when cornered.
I'm sure Steve Irwin knew better than to corner one.
You will be missed, mate.
Crocs rule.
 

Piel

On Edge
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Joe they were filming a story about the deadliest creatures in the sea or something like that so it seems that it would have made sense to have a medic of some kind on standby. Also, usually these things are insured and the insurer would require medics on standby....you would think. Just so sad.
 

julietvalcouer

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
It wasn't the venom. The barb can be 20cm long and is comparable to being stabbed with a boxcutter in the chest. Some rays can pierce a plank of plywood with their stingers. Apparently the ray spooked for some reason and stabbed, and the barb went into his chest. From the sound of it, they're guessing it either stabbed into the heart or tore the arteries above it, and he was dead basically before he reached the surface. It was a true freak accident--ray stings are usually not fatal, though the venom can cause shock and they're very, very painful.

:( My first thought was his wife, and his little kids. Very sad.
 

CzarinaAnya

Medalist
Joined
Aug 29, 2003
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. :(
 

Zanzibar

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 22, 2003
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.
 

julietvalcouer

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 10, 2005
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....
 

nubka

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
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.
 

Antilles

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
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.
 
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