Still Stacy remembers Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin as her Monday Manly Man.
Stingray Kills Famed Crocodile Hunter
CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.
Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called “Ocean’s Deadliest” when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous barb on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.
“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 at the time.
Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.
Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword “Crikey!” in his television program “Crocodile Hunter.” First broadcast in Australia in 1992, the program was picked up by the Discovery network, catapulting Irwin to international celebrity.
He rode his image into a feature film, 2002’s “The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course” and developed the wildlife park that his parents opened, Australia Zoo, into a major tourist attraction.
“The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet,” Stainton told reporters in Cairns. “He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, ‘Crocs Rule!’”
Stacy made a good choice. We are all saddened by the sudden, tragic death of someone who lived life so fully.
Rest in peace.
More: The Cozy Reader
September 5th, 2006 at 12:17 am
I think one of the reasons his death is so shocking is because he, as you have stated, lived life so fully. How many people do we come across that live, and more so, live for every moment? No matter what I saw Steve doing, he had that aura of peace (with life) and joy. He was a fascinating, wonderful man…
September 5th, 2006 at 6:15 am
It really pisses me off you know — I had to ask god to forgive me for being angry; I mean why him? Why not that nut case in Iran, or OBL? Why someone who had an obvious love for all god’s creatures and did everything in his power to teach and preserve those creatures? I know I know .. I’ll get past it, but it still doesn’t make sense.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Bindi Irwin Likes Snakes Better than the Press…
Since her father’s tragic death in September 2006, the precocious Bindi Irwin has emerged to carry on his work. She shares her father’s passion for wildlife and his personality. She is in the process of charming the world in much the same w…