CRIKEY mate! Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter, dead

22 February 1962 - 04 September 2006

It just happened about 2 hours ago, so details are a bit sketchy.....It seems a barb from a stingray got him while he was filming an underwater documentary on Batt Reef in Queensland, Australia.

Hey may not be a Kiwi, but he's still a bloody legend. Like Bono of U2 using his clout for the poor, Steve used his for helping animals that are affected by humans.

R.I.P. Steve

Is WHAT, James? Your thread title is incomplete, leaving us on the edge of our seats wondering what's happened to Steve Irwin (never heard of him :-/).

If you're R.I.P.ing him, would that mean he's popped his clogs?

Yeah, was just on the news that a stingray saw him off. I'm amazed the guy lasted this long in truth, pulling all those idiotic stunts with dangerous beasties.

Still, he was a good entertainer and did a lot of great things for animals, so here's to The Croc hunter!

Is WHAT, James? ?Your thread title is incomplete, leaving us on the edge of our seats wondering what's happened to Steve Irwin (never heard of him ?:-/).

If you're R.I.P.ing him, would that mean he's popped his clogs?

Edited, the subject line got smaller on us with the new forum :)

Looks like we can edit our posts without having that little line of script at the bottom telling the world that we've been fiddling about with them as an afterthought. Neat!

Every time I've looked at your post, James, it's changed. I could easily think I'm going nuts .

Looks like we can edit our posts without having that little line of script at the bottom telling the world that we've been fiddling about with them as an afterthought. ?Neat! ?

Every time I've looked at your post, James, it's changed. ?I could easily think I'm going nuts ?.

;D Yup, I was doing different things to it with my new found freedom. Like, I didn't like the first pic I used, so got a different one, showing his caring side.


Side note: Our posts are limited in size now, as there's a running character counter taunting me. It's about 1100 words, so that's not too bad.

Side note: Our posts are limited in size now, as there's a running character counter taunting me. It's about 1100 words, so that's not too bad.

Yes, I had trouble with one long post I had earlier. ?Lucky I'd checked it or wouldn't have noticed that the last quarter was missing. ?We're also curbed in the title length but, stranger than that, take a look at the title of this thread. ?It changes in length with each post. ? :o

I'd have been tempted to sneak into past old posts to try to rid them of that dreadful tagging that's corrupting them and making them difficult to read, but it doesn't appear we can edit the pre-armageddon posts at all.

We're also curbed in the title length but, stranger than that, take a look at the title of this thread. ?It changes in length with each post. ? :o

I think the subject on each of the posts was whatever I had as the title at the time....ah, and it's 2 characters short of the original title b/c of the "re:" at the beginning.

Yes, but in some cases the ',de' is missing off as well, but not in others.

My cats already know I'm going crazy.

Back to topic. ?Can't use my normal smiley, as forum won't allow them suddenly. Boo! ? :'(

Stingray deaths rare and agonising, experts say
05 September 2006

SYDNEY: Normally placid stingrays can deliver horrific, agonising injuries, even though fatal attacks are almost unheard of, marine experts said after the death of Australia's Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

Irwin, the bubbly, khaki-clad naturalist whose documentaries were watched by hundreds of millions around the world, died after he was struck in the chest by a stingray barb while he was diving off Australia's northeast coast yesterday.

Irwin's manager John Stainton said Irwin was swimming over the stingray during filming for a documentary when he was struck in the chest, the barb most likely piercing his heart.

Dr Bryan Fry, deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, said stingray venom was "extraordinarily painful". "If he was conscious he would have been in agony," Fry said.

Fry said stingray venom was a defensive weapon similar to that in stonefish but was not lethal. Serrated barbs on the stingray's tail would have delivered the fatal injury, he said. "It's not the going in, it's the coming out," Fry said. "They have these deep serrations which tear and render the flesh as it comes out," he said. The barbs on stingray's tails can measure up to 20 cm.

Clinical toxinologist Dr Geoff Isbister said little is known about stingray venom but agreed the physical trauma associated with the wound would have killed Irwin. "What happened to Steve Irwin is like being stabbed in the heart," Isbister said.

Injuries caused by stingrays are relatively common but fatalities are extremely rare, with experts saying there are only one or two known cases in recorded Australian history. An Aboriginal boy died several years ago, while the previous recorded death was in Melbourne in 1945.

"The majority of stingray injuries in Australia result from people stepping on them in shallow water and getting a stingray barb in the ankle," Isbister said.

Marine ecologist Sean Connell said stingrays, which feed on small animals on the sea floor, are related to sharks and use their long, barbed tails to protect themselves from predators, such as sharks and killer whales. "I have never heard of an unprovoked attack from a stingray," Connell said. "Such attacks usually only happen when the ray is under severe stress," he said.

- Reuters