http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14663786/

Quote :

"BRISBANE, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular 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 Reef near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of the state capital of Brisbane..."

9/4/2006 2:01:53 AM

9/4/2006 2:15:57 AM

Well we all knew it was going to happen sooner or later, he was fuckin' nuts about getting up close to dangerous wild animals.

Quote :

"Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian naturalist who won worldwide acclaim, was killed by a stingray barb through the chest on Monday while diving off Australia's northeast coast, emergency officials and witnesses said. "

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 3:02 AM. Reason : ]

9/4/2006 3:00:50 AM

Quote :

"Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred"

accident.....why is it that when a human fucks with an animal, and the animal does what it does naturally, it's suddenly a horrific thing

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 4:37 AM. Reason : jank]

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 4:38 AM. Reason : janker]

9/4/2006 4:36:35 AM

Cherokee, I agree with you. He claimed to respect the animals but the way he messed with them all the time was anything but. Some of it was for valid reasons, but not all of it.

9/4/2006 7:24:28 AM

Quote :

"accident.....why is it that when a human fucks with an animal, and the animal does what it does naturally, it's suddenly a horrific thing"

it's an "accident" because it was a freak thing...he probably wouldnt' have died if the barb didn't pierce his chest...and it's only horrific because a national icon (australian, obviously) was killed, no one is blaming the stingray

Quote :

"Cherokee, I agree with you. He claimed to respect the animals but the way he messed with them all the time was anything but. Some of it was for valid reasons, but not all of it."

HE didnt' really "mess" with the animals, he did what was necessary to protect them. However, the way the media portrayed him, SNL, South Park, etc. led many to believe that he was sticking his thumb up crocs asses for no reason

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 8:03 AM. Reason : if he ever did "mess" with an animal, it was to exhibit the power of nature to the world]

9/4/2006 8:00:37 AM

http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=430516

9/4/2006 8:06:28 AM

I think a stringray barb through the chest would be prettyhorrific.

9/4/2006 9:43:38 AM

and it isnt like stingrays are THAT mean compared to crocs really.

9/4/2006 9:51:34 AM

he didnt even know the stingray was there

it was buried in the sand and when he swam over it, he incidently "boxed in" the stingray and it reacted to its innate defenses

9/4/2006 12:02:19 PM

yeah, i'm not suprised that he was killed by a wild animal, but i really thought it would be a croc that did it

9/4/2006 12:04:45 PM

definition of irony:


and lives



and lives



and dies

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 12:13 PM. Reason : asf]

9/4/2006 12:13:07 PM

Its not ironic, people. He's not going to die by something he specializes in (crocs). He knows all there is to know about crocs, he was NOT going to die by one.

9/4/2006 12:16:49 PM

The Photoshops have already appeared:

9/4/2006 12:18:24 PM

ironically enough i had just finished watching the SP episode with the ice man where "he" goes around sticking his thumb up animals' asses

9/4/2006 12:39:46 PM

9/4/2006 1:13:04 PM

probably is the best thing to happen for stingrays

they are pretty underappreciated, and now people will educate themselves about them and realize how interesting the animals really are

9/4/2006 1:14:52 PM

^x4. Dude you gotta make a shirt with that.

9/4/2006 1:20:37 PM

the guerrilla stingray is like the martin luther king for stingrays

9/4/2006 1:30:24 PM

9/4/2006 1:55:58 PM

stingray = neurotoxic venom, affecting the CNS

stingray barb in the proximity of the heart, in any dose, a serious situation


what alot of people here dont realize is that before the time of steve irwin the entertainer, he has always been a huge conservationist and a researcher, contributing alot of pertinent information when it comes to crocodilians and other animals. He built a legacy with the Australia Zoo and in his 44 years accomplished alot more than many others can say...

just cant believe he went this way...

9/4/2006 4:41:26 PM

From what I understand (which isn't much), stingrays are not horribly violent animals. You can pet them in Sea World, there's a place on the big island of Hawaii where you can swim with them, etc. I know it's a wild animal, and it's going to do its wild animal thing, but it's really surprising to me because, well, I would have thought it would be the crocs that got to him first.

My husband and I were driving home when we heard this on the news. We both looked at each other and said, "Crikey!"

9/4/2006 4:54:23 PM

crikey!

9/4/2006 5:24:37 PM

Looks like there was video of the accident. Wont be long till it's on youtube or somewhere else....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/irwin.death/index.html

9/5/2006 5:28:57 AM

let's hope we can see the moment he stops breathing...

RIP Steve Irwin. some of us know what you really did and that is what counts.

9/5/2006 5:33:53 AM

R.I.P., G.

9/5/2006 7:12:36 AM

a stingray barb can be like 10 inches long, even with out the poison if it hit him in the heart its gonna do some damage

9/5/2006 7:24:00 AM

+ =

9/5/2006 9:37:42 AM

he was a good man but jesus when you play with fire you are going to get burnt

it is sad to see, but if anyone didnt see this coming eventually you have to be kidding me

if you want to live to see 80 you dont play around with wild deadly animals

he died doing what he loved and i am sure that is enough for him and his wife and family

9/5/2006 9:47:53 AM

well, Bill Haast who opened the Miami Serpentarium in the late 40s early 50s is now 95 years old and has been bitten more than 160 times by venomous species from around the world....

9/5/2006 12:13:33 PM

Yes, but was he bit in the heart?

9/5/2006 12:26:48 PM

no, but he was envenomated by species more toxic than a stingray....

the location of irwin's envenomation is what made it so severe

9/5/2006 1:40:40 PM

Venom or not, anything through the heart is gonna fuck up your day.

9/5/2006 2:13:48 PM

Quote :

"he was a good man but jesus when you play with fire you are going to get burnt"

teaching the world about animals =/= playing with fire

9/5/2006 2:21:35 PM

um chasing crocodile and playing with venomous snakes is

i, for one, find it priceless that he died by being harpooned through the heart by a generally non-agressive animal

circle of life

9/5/2006 2:35:06 PM

i hate you people there is nothing posibly funny in this thread.

9/5/2006 5:52:39 PM

if you can't find humor in death, how the hell can you find it in life?

[Edited on September 5, 2006 at 6:18 PM. Reason : asdf]

9/5/2006 6:18:32 PM

Quote :

"From what I understand (which isn't much), stingrays are not horribly violent animals"

they are completely nonviolent, one nickname for rays is "kittens of the sea". That said, the barb is there to protect them from predators and as someone posted above, this bullray apparently felt it was boxed in ... so it defended itself.

Steve Irwin, like some of the other animal shows on TV, do 'over' handle the animals - but they do so for a specific reason. You have to make TV exciting and interesting to get people to watch, and once you accomplish that you can educate. The guy loved his life... i think he was a positive force for conservation and I think it's a real loss for the earth as a whole.

9/6/2006 1:02:36 AM

He was a solidly good man who could be a conservationist without being whiny about it. And he was ballsy as hell, too, for which I have the utmost respect. He did things with complete sangfroid that I don't think I could do in my drunkest condition. I hope the arrangements are made to give him a state funeral. He deserves it.

R.I.P. you crazy bastard.

9/6/2006 1:48:59 AM

Quote :

"My husband and I were driving home when we heard this on the news. We both looked at each other and said, "Crikey!""

I read that as diving, and I was like, wow, what a coincidence!


The croc in the pic below seems to be smiling




Anyway, to clear up some confusions and misconceptions in this thread:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5314918.stm

Quote :

"Tape 'shows Irwin's last moments' Videotape of the moment Steve Irwin was hit by a stingray's tail shows the Australian naturalist pulling the barb from his chest, his manager has said. "The tail came up, and spiked him here [in the chest], and he pulled it out and the next minute, he's gone," Mr Irwin's manager, John Stainton, said. Queensland state police have now taken the tape to be used in an inquest into the incident on the Great Barrier Reef. The much-loved TV star could be given a state funeral if his family agree. Throughout Monday and Tuesday thousands of fans gathered at Mr Irwin's zoo in Beerwah on Australia's sunshine coast to lay flowers and write messages of condolence. On Tuesday, Australia's federal parliament paused to honour Mr Irwin, whom Prime Minister John Howard said had died in "quintessentially Australian circumstances". Mr Howard quoted Australian-based actor Russell Crowe, who had paid tribute to Mr Irwin earlier by saying: "Steve Irwin was the Australian many of us aspire to be." Mr Irwin had been in the water at Batt Reef, off the resort town of Port Douglas about 100km (62 miles) north of Cairns, filming bull stingrays for a TV documentary called Ocean's Deadliest. 'It probably felt threatened' Cameraman Ben Cropp, who was also on the reef when Mr Irwin was killed on Monday, spoke to a member of the production crew who had seen the footage of the incident. "He was up in the shallow water, probably 1.5m to 2m deep, following a bull ray which was about a metre across the body - probably weighing about 100kg, and it had quite a large spine," Mr Cropp told The Australian newspaper. "It stopped and went into a defensive mode and swung its tail with the spike. It probably felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead, and it felt there was danger and it baulked." Though armed with a venom-coated, sharp barb on their tail, stingrays only use the weapon defensively and attacks on humans are extremely rare. Appearing on ABC News, Mr Stainton, who was with the TV crew on the reef, described watching the footage of the incident as a "terrible" experience. "It was a hard thing to watch because you are actually watching a person die," Mr Stainton said. Mr Irwin's heart is believed to have been pierced, and he died almost immediately. Websites overwhelmed Mr Irwin's body has now been flown from the mortuary in Cairns, where a post-mortem examination was carried out, to the small town of Beerwah where he lived. The TV presenter is survived by his wife Terri and two children - eight-year-old daughter Bindi Sue and three-year-old son Bob. No funeral arrangements have been announced yet, but Queensland State Premier Peter Beattie said Mr Irwin would be given a state funeral if his family approved. Mr Irwin was regarded by many Australians as a national treasure and as news of his death broke, news websites across the country found it difficult to cope with the demand for information. Tributes flowed in from Mr Irwin's fellow conservationists and his many fans around the world, and across the country on Tuesday the morning papers devoted their front pages to news of his death. "

9/6/2006 2:40:05 AM

Quote :

"My husband and I were driving home when we heard this on the news. We both looked at each other and said, "Crikey!"" I read that as diving, and I was like, wow, what a coincidence! "

What's the real coincidence? We were driving home from me getting a tattoo of a batray on my leg.

9/6/2006 3:08:09 AM

Well, now the sequel to Snakes on a Plane (Crocs on a Plane) will never happen

9/6/2006 10:05:05 AM

Do you wonder that if maybe he left the barb in he would of had a chance at surviving? They could have cut the barb and then quickly sealed his heart, massaged it to bring it back and then....who knows?

I'm just wondering if it's the same as getting a knife stuck in your body, if you pull it out you will bleed. Maybe he did too much damage by exposing the hole in his heart and tearing things on the way out that ultimately led to his passing?

Or was this pretty much useless because it was the heart and nothing can be done when an accident like that happens?

9/6/2006 10:49:45 AM

Quote :

"teaching the world about animals =/= playing with fire"

i dont need someone to teach me to stay the fuck away from croc's and certain snakes

my education paid off my friend

like i said he was a great guy from the conservationist point of view

but plain and simple he played with fire, he played with one too many deadly animals and got his shit fucked up, i dont think i am going to leave this earth from that scenario, why you ask, cause i dont like to play with things that can kill me if i dont have to

he died doing what he loved, and i am sure that is enough or him or anyone, but dont think for one minute that he didnt have a better than average chance of being killed by one of those animals he was exposed to

9/6/2006 11:33:18 AM

even if he hadn't have pulled it out, i somehow doubt this 9 foot stingray would have just sat there and waited patiently while this crew gathered around and sawed his stringer off.
Probably, the stingray would have continued to jab and move the stinger around and maybe make it worse

9/6/2006 11:36:02 AM

^ dude wtf?

the stinger comes out when the stingray stings you, just like a bee's stinger. it doesn't stay attached to the fish...

the ray stung him and moved on. then he took it (the barb) out of his chest.

9/6/2006 11:48:01 AM

Nm, I found it.
Even if he hadn't pulled it out, I doubt having your heart pumped full of poison would be even remotely okay. He was effed either way.


[Edited on September 6, 2006 at 12:36 PM. Reason : and I was like, wtf?]

9/6/2006 12:33:33 PM

^^ ok, my bad. i don't know much/anything about stingrays

9/6/2006 1:15:32 PM

It's jsut an insane situation that it stabbed directly into the heart and that this has occured more than once! Impressive aim for stingrays.

We all knew he was going to die this way I was jsut hoping it wasn't going to be so soon. He had a lot to offer to the world still and every second he spent on this Earth he made it better. With all the great things he accomplished in his short life just imagine what kind of record he would have made living out into his 80's or later. Just a sad day for the animal kingdom and I hope he's inspired enough people to keep his message going and push his ideas into action.

9/6/2006 2:37:09 PM

wait for it

9/6/2006 6:47:56 PM