Antievolution.org - Antievolution.org Discussion Board -Topic::The Croc hunter is no more.

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Joined: May 2006

Posted: Sep. 03 2006,19:43

Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray barb that actually pierced his heart today.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/australia.irwin/

Whatever you might think of the guy, ya gotta admit he went out with style.

Who else could possibly have managed to get themselves knocked off by a stingray barb to the heart?

Fond farewell to the croc hunter.

cheers, mate.

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"And the sea will grant each man new hope..."

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deadman_932

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Posted: Sep. 03 2006,19:51

My little friend who's ten years old just told me about that 20 minutes ago. I'm still trying to console her, he made a big impression on lots of people, as did Boyd Lyon who died studying sea turtles just a few weeks ago. Cheers to all those people trying to make a positive difference in the world.

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bfish

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Posted: Sep. 03 2006,21:02

Ichthyic, you're breaking my heart. I used to love watching Croc Hunter, back when it was on Animal Planet every 45 minutes or so. His little boy is just about the same age as my daughter. This is terribly sad.
There might be more about this in the coming days in the Sydney Morning Herald (and no doubt in Queensland papers, but smh.com.au is where I go for my Aussie news).
http://www.smh.com.au/news....12.html

My condolences to his friends and family.

Crabby Appleton

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Posted: Sep. 03 2006,23:21

How the #### do you get a stingray to poke you in the chest?

Steverino

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,02:23

At 47 years old, I still love watching the Croc Hunter. There was a certain level of engergy and passion in his presentation. Plus, he walked the walk.

It's a shame when someone who has such passion and wishes to share that passion...and actually does good, is lost all too early.

Only the good die young.

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skeptic

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,04:24

I've got to agree with Crabby, what are the odds? Given everything he's done and all the situations he put himself in...something as freakish as that really makes you think. Godspeed Steve Irwin, you will be sorely missed.

k.e

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,05:13

Remember if you get real close to a stingray....don't grab its tail. Great fish on the end of a line though, they can exert the force of a freight train.
I had to tell my kids Steve Irwin died again, since I told them years ago he was eaten by a crocodile.

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The conservative has but little to fear from the man whose reason is the servant of his passions, but let him beware of him in whom reason has become the greatest and most terrible of the passions.These are the wreckers of outworn empires and civilisations, doubters, disintegrators, deicides.Haldane

Chris Hyland

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,05:15

Quote

How the #### do you get a stingray to poke you in the chest?

Dunno, but I remember a conversation with a marine biologist a few years ago who told me it was not unheard of for them to sting all the way through someones leg or arm.

MidnightVoice

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Joined: Aug. 2005

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,08:19

Very sad. He was a conservationist as well as a star

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin

Stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, on the top of their tail. The barb, which can be up to 10 inches long, flexes if a ray is frightened. Stings usually occur to people when they step on or swim too close to a ray and can be excruciatingly painful but are rarely fatal, said University of Queensland marine neuroscientist Shaun Collin.

Collin said he suspected Irwin died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and directly into his heart.

"It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a stingray and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.

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If I fly the coop some time
And take nothing but a grip
With the few good books that really count
It's a necessary trip

I'll be gone with the girl in the gold silk jacket
The girl with the pearl-driller's hands

stevestory

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,12:23

BWE

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,12:58

How ever many style points are available, that's how many he gets.

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When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

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Ichthyic

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Posted: Sep. 04 2006,13:19

I recall seeing an interview with an ichthyologist who specializes in rays saying that there was only one other case on record where someone had been stung directly in the heart by a stingray, and that person survived.

all other deaths I can recall were related to severe allergic reactions to the venom, or from complications resulting from infections of the wound site.

so that makes Irwin the only person in recorded history to have been killed in such fashion, AFAICT.

Moreover, stingrays are not usually aggressive in any way. Even the person who was working with Irwin on this project, and had spent a lot of time diving with this particular species mentioned he had only once seen an aggresive response from this species.

as to how one could even get a sting to the heart to begin with, the stingers on some rays are quite large (up to 10 inches), and the rays are able to flex their tails a fair bit, so I can imagine a stike upwards of the tail hitting the chest and driving the stinger in quite a ways. Steve was snorkeling at the time, so it probably was pretty shallow water, and if Steve was directly over the ray and it felt threatened...

still, it truly is the definition of "freak accident".

I think there is legitimate debate about the interest generated by his "hands on" cowboy-style stage personality he exhibited in his many TV shows (a bit too much "Marlin Perkins", at the expense of talking about the actual science involved), but nobody I can find anywhere ever challenged his dedication to increasing awareness of the conservation needs of many "uncuddly" critters.

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"And the sea will grant each man new hope..."

-CC

Henry J

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Posted: Sep. 17 2006,11:23

They're doing another day of Crocodile Hunter episodes.

In one of them, the contestants of Miss World visited the zoo. They put Steve and Terri on the judge panel for the swimsuit competition. Eh? A guy who thinks crocodiles are beautiful? What's wrong with this picture - he'd likely pick the one who looks most like a crocodile!

Oh, and one of Steve's remarks caught my attention - "When you look at a crocodile, you're looking at a hundred million years of evolution."

Henry

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