It is a truly sad day for the world as we have lost one our best animals rights activists and tv celeb ever.
I was driveing along today when at 1pm they said that he had died, I couldnt belive it at all. No longer will we see his cheerful smile or get that good feeling of when you see him help an animal in stress..

From the news.

THE Crocodile Man, Steve Irwin, is dead. He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said. It appeared that he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest, Queensland Police Inspector Russell Rhodes said.

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary and that's when it occurred.
Ambulance officers confirmed they attended a reef fatality this morning at Batt Reef off Port Douglas.

Mr Irwin, 44, was killed just after 11am, Eastern Australian time.

His American wife Terri learned for the tragedy from police in Tasmania, where she is currently trekking in Cradle Mountain National Park.

It is understood Mr Irwin was killed instantly.

A source said Mr Irwin was already dead when his body was brought onto the Isle.

A source said Mr Irwin's body was being airlifted to Cairns Hospital in North Queensland for formal identification.

An Emergency Services Response Management spokeswoman said they received a call about the tragedy at 11.11 am, Australian Eastern Standard Time.

The response unit left in a helicopter for the Batt Reef at 11.18am and arrived shortly after.

Mr Irwin was pronounced dead at the scene immediately, the spokeswoman said.

Steve Irwin's activities went far beyond his universally-known roles as an international TV star and owner of Australia Zoo, north of Brisbane.

They includes assisting Australian Quarantine Inspection service with advertising campaigns warning travellers not to bring foreign matter into the country, and he was becoming a vocal critic of the slaughter of Australian wildlife.

The federal government recently dropped plans to allow crocodile safaris for wealty tourists in the Northern Territority after Irwin intervened, taking Environment Minister Ian Campbell on a tour of croc infested Cape York.

At the time, Irwin told Australian TV program A Current Affair that: ``Killing one of our beautiful animals in the name of trophy hunting will have a very negative impact on tourism, which scares the living daylights out of me.''

The Prime Minister John Howard considered Irwin a friend, inviting him to a barbecue at The Lodge for US President George W. Bush in 2003.

Irwin was a devoted father to his two children Bindi, 8, and Bob, 3.

"Bindi is the reason I was put on this earth. All I want to do is be with her and all she wants to do is be with me. We have such a great time together and it's not just a father and daughter relationship, it's also like I'm a big brother and she's my little sister,'' he told New Idea magazine in 2005.

However the previous year Irwin had created a furore when he took 'Baby Bob' into Australia Zoo's crocodile enclosure while feeding a four-metre salt water crocodile.

Irwin burst onto the media scene with his documentary The Crocodile Hunter in 1992, and his over-the-top persona soon made him a star. In 2002 he burst on to the big screen on Crocodile Hunter: The Collision Course, soon achieving A-list fame.

His celebrity friends include Russell Crowe.

Despite his worldwide popularity, closer to home Irwin got bad press after he was controversially paid $175,000 for a quarantine ad.

Irwin was named Queenslander of the Year in 2003.

Very sad indeed. I was watching a program yesterday with him and Autralia Zoo.

:cry:

steve irwin was my role model when i was younger, and for most of my life, its a known fact that after getting stung by things for a long time, you build up an immunity, i never thought he'd die by getting stung, well i did know but i didn't want to believe... it..

and i literally am crying as i type this.. so ill stop here and add a new posts later with more of my thoughts...

OHHH no, i just realised that i am ranked as a stingray by the posts i have atm..

at first i was laughing about that, but now it made me cry again, i feel as though me being a post hog and getting 850 posts and becoming a sting-rayy cause the sting ray to kill him, iknow it isnt true.. but OMG...

This is a tragic loss on so many levels, the world has lost a friend...

It is wierd to think that the quirky cool herptologist is gone.

on the other fish forum i go on, they posted the same things, here ill quote some of them without giving names

"Kinda unreal to me right now, always watched his show. Horrible it happened, but i guess he died doing what he loved."

"Wow, that is so sad :( it's kinda hard to believe really"

"yea it is hard to believe."

"there should be a crying smiley, :( only expressed like, of thats a shame, but not a tragedy, and this, to some people, is a tragedy among tragedies."<<<< this one was posted by me, there was different smiley in every place i put a :(

He died doing something he loved. As great a loss as it is in many ways it was a good way to go for him.

I feel awful for his wife and kids. :(

I'm truely speechless...

:rip: Steve Irwin :sook:

As much as it annoyed me to see him pester one species of animal after another. The man truly did bring conservation to the limelight and he will always be commended in my books for that alone. He kind of reminded me of a MUCH tamer version of the Grizzly man, Timothy Treadwell. Both men meant well but were sometimes misguided by their passion and paid the ultimate price.



Steve Irwin 1962 - 2006 :rip:

I agree, sometimes ( well alot of the time) he took things too far and pestered animals, but he did it for our pleasures, his heart ws in the right place. I've always enjoyed his enthusiasm, so let our thoughts be with his family. I really didnt think stingrays would be capable of piercing so deep into a body.

I just found out this morning that he had passed away. Its such a shock to hear that it happened. We watched him all the time on T.V. here. I always thought it would happen from a croc. or a snake. :rip:

Quote-

"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!'"


His friend who was with him when he died. Those are basically my feelings for Irwin. He was the best. Goodbye Steve."

Anyone else able to agree with the "anonymous" person who said this?, other than me of course.

first time i got sad because some one died out side of my family, and only 44, that is too young to die, and he did so much good in the world, like, planting all thous euctoliptus (spelling??) kowallas (spelling?) truly a great loss.....


:rip:

Death is a weird thing to me, most of the time I am callous about it. Steve Irwin gave everyone who listened something very special and I think I mourn that he will not be teaching me any more. Perhaps I should just be happy that the teachings he has will continue on to others...

"Perhaps I should just be happy that the teachings he has will continue on to others... "

what you just said glaive, reminded me to the lyrics of a song

"my soul and my spirit will go on, throughout all of eternity"

Dragonforce-through the fire and the flames

People who have learned from steve will tell otherwho did not know of him, and then later, those who learned shall tell the teachings of not steve irwin, but the people who learned from him... the village elders pass on the stories...

http://www.kennedy-stevens.com/obits.htm

You can leave a note for Steve's family there. I'm not sure they will read it, however it doesn't hurt in my opinion.

It's sad that he is gone but as several others have said he died doing what he loved, we should all be so lucky.
With today's technology his teachings will live on and we can hope that his children will eventually follow in his footsteps as far as the family zoo and teaching, but hopefully in a slightly more cautious manner.