Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter) dies..........

[Nutsy]

OMG what terrible news! Is this a hoax?? I have to goggle this and see if I can get further info. I feel so sad, I really admired that guy. My kids will be shocked to hear this news.

Definately not a hoax I'm afraid to say.

 

[graygables]

I wonder how safe the Stingray Excursions are ? I'm feeling a little scared to do this on our Disney Cruise trip.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family in this very difficult time.

The Castaway Cay stingray's barbs are filed off (like fingernails) so they can't hurt you. I don't know about the others.

We were just talking about him at dinner tonight...so sad. Our prayers are with his family today.

 

[Nutsy]

The saddest part of all this is that yesterday was Father's Day here in Australia

 

[thewishfire]

This is so sad! I was just talking about him today!

 

[Nutsy]

The Castaway Cay stingray's barbs are filed off (like fingernails) so they can't hurt you. I don't know about the others.

We were just talking about him at dinner tonight...so sad. Our prayers are with his family today.

I think you will find these rays that Steve was filming have posion in their barbs.

 

[GrinGrinnyGhosts]

OMG are you kidding me?????

I've always enjoyed watching him and his wife. The link didn't go through for me. What happened? I've got to know!!!!

He Really Died here a news thing;

THE stingray barb that struck Steve Irwin would have been as deadly as a rifle bayonet driven into one of his vital organs, Australian wildlife filmmaker David Ireland said today.

Mr Ireland, sometimes referred to as "the original crocodile man" and a world-renowned wildlife cameraman and film producer, said he was shocked and saddened to hear of Mr Irwin's death.

Mr Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb through the chest while diving off Port Douglas in north Queensland, and it's thought likely he died from cardiac arrest.

Mr Ireland said while he had never met his fellow wildlife movie maker, they had a mutual respect which was shared among the handful of people in the world who worked "close up" with wild animals.

"What happened today is just an absolute shock," a shaken Mr Ireland told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"There are not very many of us who work in the wilderness with wild animals; you could probably count us on two hands, there are probably only 10 of us in the world.

"Working with them the way the way we do things can go very wrong."

Mr Ireland said he had done a film a few years ago on stingrays, "hand-feeding them and all sorts of things, always trying to highlight that in all our moves there's a very real danger".

"I don't want to go into this because I'm thinking of his family and what they must be going through, but they (stingrays) are very dangerous.

"They have one or two barbs in the tails which are not only coated in toxic material but are also like a bayonet, like a bayonet on a rifle.

"If it hits any vital organs it's as deadly as a bayonet."

Mr Ireland said he had made the documentary on stingrays to show they were disappearing and "the problems they have surviving in the modern world".

"We get really close to them and show how they perform, but in one of the scenes I actually pushed one up into shallow water to make it strike to show how deadly they are," Mr Ireland said.

"Wild animals are incredibly fast and a lot of animals have got very efficient defence mechanisms.

"We're very vulnerable as humans, working with animals like that."

Mr Ireland has 25 years experience in filming everything from lions and leopards to sharks and crocodiles.

Known as the "Original Crocodile Man", he played the lead role in his own wildlife documentary Crocodile Man, which was distributed worldwide on Discovery channel in 1990.

It played for a record 12 months in the Great Barrier Reef cinema in Townsville from 1990 to 1991.

Mr Ireland said Mr Irwin's death had brought home the fact that the animals that he and other wildlife filmmakers work with are "very real, and the dangers are very real"

"I never met him. The sad thing is we never shook hands. It's a very, very painful day for everybody," he said.

 

[Mom2Angels]

Wow. RIP Croc Hunter.

A fatal blow to the chest by a stingray barb has to be a first. That is a really odd accident.

I found this link -

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11476200&dopt=Abstract

 

[MiaSRN62]

So sad...the whole family loved watching him on TV. My kids will be so upset in the morning.

He had such a love for life. What a wonderful crusader for animals and nature he was. Steve will be missed......my thoughts and prayers to his family.

 

[FreshTressa]

That is sad about his wife being unable to be reached and doesn't know of it yet.

 

[mking624]

I just still can't get over the shock...I'm literally sitting here with tears streaming down my face. It's almost like losing a family member!!

 

[GrinGrinnyGhosts]

Over 200 Links About him http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&l...&ie=UTF-8&q=Steve+Irwin+Dead&btnG=Search+News

 

[TinkNH]

oh no!

 

[Nutsy]

Hi there,

I was very interested in your article about sting ray stings, as I had the misfortune 2 years ago to be "hit by one of these fellows in the right foot. The stinger went through rubber boots (waders) and when I pulled the waders off, the stinger had pulled my thick white sock through the hole in the waders. The injury has taken 12 months to heal and really to this day I can still feel a sting when I talk about it!

The injury was so severe. The pain was unbelievable! It really was! Thank god it was me and not one of my children, I just would have not known how painful it was.

I am a butcher by trade and have been cut/stabbed/sliced and have been stitched by every doctor in Melbourne, so I am quite brave when it come to the pain threshold, but this was something I have never or want to encounter again .

The hot water worked really good, but you have to be careful, the pain takes over all the other senses, I couldn't even feel the doctors injections and he gave me heaps of "peth". 30 minutes later I stopped yelling *phew*.

But the second worse thing happened for a best part of the week was I was fainting about 10 times a day. The hospital put it down to Marine toxins in my system. The covering of the Stinger is like a slimy velvet (black) and is also pushed into the wound causing mass infection. This MUST be removed ( painfully) I might add.

I just thought that I would share my first hand experience with you. Keep up the good work!

Regards Colin Palmer."

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I wonder if any of the documentary he was making will ever make it to air?

I feel so bad for his wife and children! At least the kids will have the TV shows to remember their dad by.

(You guys are welcome to use the graphic I made, btw.)

 

[smilingmouse]

RIP Steve. you will be sorely missed

 

[Kbarne]

What a loss for the world. I am stunned and saddened for his family.

 

[Mom2Angels]

Nutsy, everything I've found said they are filled with poison, here are a couple -

"'70 percent of stingray victims go unconscious as a result of the poisonous venom,"'

"Each snorkeler is given safety instructions on how to avoid the tail area where the ray’s poisonous barb is located"

"The sting of the stingray is a well-crafted, trauma- and venom-inducing apparatus that has survived the test of time over millions of years. Since it is not used for food gathering, its purpose may be purely defensive."

Maybe since there are over 150 species it just depends on which type stings you.

 

[WDWLVR]

Very sad news indeed. He was definately one of a kind.

 

[palmickey2005]

The Castaway Cay stingray's barbs are filed off (like fingernails) so they can't hurt you. I don't know about the others.

Thanks for your reply. I don't know much about stingrays but I thank you for your info. on the stingrays at Castaway Cay.

 

[remmy_7]

I couldn't believe this when I read it. I was really hoping it was some sort of sick joke.
What enthusiasm this guy had! He loved what he did and he will be missed. Rest in peace!