Steve Irwin Has Died
Steve Irwin was known as being a bit on the wild side. He took lots of chances while taping his shows. This was a display of how connected he felt with nature. Irwin had set up Australia Zoo, a wildlife park. The site is unfortunately down at the moment.
From Steve Irwin’s Wikipedia entry, Environmentalism:
Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: “I consider myself a wild-life warrior. My mission is to save the world’s endangered species.” Irwin bought “large tracts of land” in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as “like national parks” and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.
From Steve Irwin’s Wikipedia Article, Death:
Shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time (0100 UTC) on 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray barb while diving in Batt Reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef), off the coast of Port Douglas in Queensland. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, to be called The Ocean’s Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for a segment in the television program his daughter Bindi was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the animals. “He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat, called the Croc I, at the time.
Steve Irwin took a lot of risks, but swimming with stingrays is not usually a very risky behavior. The whole occurrence was videotaped. Ben Cropp, a marine documentary filmaker, thinks that the stingray felt boxed in by the cameraman in front and Steve Irwin on top.
Stingray on Wikipedia, Aggression
Fatal stings, such as that which killed Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin in 2006, are extremely rare (as of 1996, worldwide known deaths from stingray barb injuries numbered 17), but can occur if a stinger punctures the heart or chest, causing complications due to both the sting’s location and the poison in the barbs.
That statistic was mentioned on my local news, and also in Wikipedia. Wikipedia references this article at Surf Lifesaving Australia
as a primary source.
Steve Irwin will definitely be missed.