Crocodile Hunter Dead

[Simmo_V2.0]

CRIKEY!!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/crocodile-hunter-reported-dead/2006/09/04/1157222051512.html

Oh.. a sad day for all Australians.

[i_love_som_tam]

Crikey!!!

[Dave40]

Finally BushTucker Man will get the recognition he deserves...

Bad luck about Steve feel sorry for his family, Les hiddins is a legend (bush tucker man)

[eagle]

I'm sorry he is dead but after seeing him kissing some very poisonous snakes and other daring deeds on camera I'm not so surprised, evidently Mother Nature had enough......rip Steve

[LingBaah]

Life is a *****... and although this is a strange way to meet your end he knew there was this possibillity

[Grooved_Arete]

Sincere condolences to Steve's family for someone who brought the world of nature to a new (media hungry) generation.

As far as I am aware, being killed from the barb of a sting ray is a very unusual accident indeed and we shall have to await the final reports as to how and why it happened.

Rays are part of the shark family and contrary to received wisdom do not usually give SCUBA divers any problems (and would only defend themselves if they perceived a threat), although I have heard of divers accidentally stepping on rays and being stung. In Koh Tao (Surat Thani) there is the highly venemous sea snake but again, I have not heard of any reports of it biting any divers, or any fatalities, even though it is potentially lethal.

The message I would like to give any prospective SCUBA divers is not be put off diving because of this accident. It is a very rare occurence.

Robert

PADI #481498

[Princess]

I just heard about it. The man took enormous risks - still - I can't help but feel sad for his family and kids. He and his wife made a good team.

[MikeAussieGuy]

I got stung by a ray barb at Cape York when fishing.

I was swimming clost to the beach and actually swam over it, I copped it in the thigh. The pain was so severe I know if I wasnt near the beach I would drowned as no way I could swim.

I spent 2 days in hospital as the barb infected me also, I can imagine getting stung in the heart would bring about death. BTW barbs on the big rays can be a foot long and would easily slice through cartlidge like a razor.

I feel sorry for Steve and his family, I met him in Cairns few years ago, a real nice guy, so funny too. Lot of life left in him, sad to end it so young.

[johnno]

a very sad day. what happened was just a tragic accident. he will be missed by everyone as his enthusiasm for his job rubbed off on everyone who has ever seen one of his documentaries. vale steve. crikey, this is not a good day. here are some reports of the accident........

the flamboyant naturalist's final confrontation with a wild animal occurred at Batt Reef off Port Douglas on Monday morning, where he had been filming a new documentary, "Ocean's Deadliest".

Taking time off from the main project, Mr Irwin was swimming in shallow water, snorkelling as his cameraman filmed large bull rays.

"He came over the top of a stingray and the stingray's barb went up and went into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Mr Irwin's friend and manager John Stainton.

"It's likely that he possibly died instantly when the barb hit him, and I don't think that he ... felt any pain.

"He died doing what he loved best."

Marine documentary maker Ben Cropp, who spoke to one of Mr Irwin's crew, said: "Steve got probably maybe a bit too close to the ray, and with the cameraman in front, the ray must have felt sort of cornered.

"It went into a defensive mode, stopped, turned around and lashed out with its tail, which has a considerable spike on it.

"Unfortunately Steve was directly in its path and he took a fatal wound."

[venus]

death is not a bad thing. personally, i am not scared of it.

for family, its too hard to accept the fact that someone who do you love is actually gone..... forever.

you no longer can tell this person in person how much you love him.

[CocoaBrotha]

He was a balsy dude, but his time was up!

[Grooved_Arete]

With reference to my previous post and the infrequency of this type of accident, please see the reporting from the BBC.

In the article, it confirms that attacks on humans are very rare with only one other person known to have died in Australia from a stingray attack. This was at St Kilda, Melbourne, way back in 1945.

The full article can be viewed at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5311298.stm

So, again, all those "wanna-be" divers, please try and not to be put off by this accident.

Robert

PADI #481498

[Guest]

Truly tragic and sad. he enriched our lives because it is such crazy characters who inspire and motivate us. He was very entertaining and wonderfully genuine.

On the other hand it is a weird sort of moral that suggests that even with the best of intentions if you keep pushing the boat out and or interferring with WILD ANIMAL/CREATURES you do risk some awful consequences.

There is no squaring this circle - it is just really tragic. Im just sad at the though of it. I keep thinking if only it was just an injury or somehting. Death is so depressing coz it is forever and irreversible.

SAD SAD SAD

[CMG_UK]

You live by the sword and you die by the sword...

It's kind of an appropriate way to go, given that we all have to somehow.....

[Japhrodisiac]

Yanking ray's barb hastened Irwin's death

Sydney (dpa) - Australian wildlife documentary maker Steve Irwin's final act of ripping a stingray's jagged barb from his chest cut his chances of surviving the underwater wound, experts said Wednesday.

Irwin, 44, died Monday while snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef when the serrated, venomous tip of a stingray's barb pierced his heart.

"The more you start pulling things around, the more damage you do to yourself," Queensland marine biologist Peter Fenner told The Australian newspaper. "That's against the basic principles and could well have made things worse."

An autopsy on the famed Crocodile Hunter showed the cause of death was the injury to his heart, inflicted by the 20-centimetre-long spike, but did not establish whether it was blood loss, a heart attack or organ damage that took the life of the khaki-clad showman and millionaire zookeeper.

Bryan Fry of Melbourne University's venom research unit concurred with Fenner's view that Irwin would have been better to leave the barb in place.

"To pull the barb out would have taken a lot of force and could do more damage," Fry said.

"The serrations mean it would not slide out like a knife, and pulling it out could have caused more tissue damage. Stingray venom is rarely fatal. The poison is not leaking from the barb. It would have been in him regardless, so it would have made no difference to leave it in."

Only 17 people worldwide are known to have died after contact with stingrays. Irwin, who made his name wrestling crocodiles, is only the second Australian to die from a stingray barb.

The first Australian casualty was 12-year-old Jeff Zahmel, who succumbed to his wounds six days after a barb pierced his heart in 1988 in Queensland. In a bizarre accident, a stingray soared over the dinghy Zahmel was in, stabbing him in the chest as it went. The stingray swished its tail in alarm after brushing the bodies in the boat.

Stingrays are normally placid animals who deploy their deadly barbs only when they feel threatened or cornered. Police who have seized video of the incident said that Irwin had not provoked the stingray but swam near it.

[Loburt]

Goodness gracious.What a fuss over nothing. Now they're talking about giving him a state funeral. That's a bigger croc than anything he ever hunted.. You'd think the guy won the Nobel Peace Prize or something.