Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Australian Coroner Given Video of Irwin's Stingray Encounter
By Ed Johnson
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- A coroner will study video footage of ``Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin's last moments snorkeling with a stingray as part of the investigation into the Australian television star's death, police said.
The 44-year-old died yesterday after being struck in the heart by a stringray's barbed tail while filming a documentary at Batt Reef near Port Douglas, a tourist resort in the state of Queensland. A copy of the footage was given to the state coroner, said Queensland Police spokeswoman Kim McCoomb, who declined to say whether it captured the sea creature's fatal blow.
The video was ``shocking,'' Irwin's friend and producer John Stainton told a news conference today, Agence France-Presse reported. ``It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die. It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him,'' he said, according to the news agency.
Irwin shot to fame after his first wildlife documentary, ``The Crocodile Hunter,'' became a global hit. He went on to film 53 episodes of the Emmy award-nominated ``Croc Files'' and ``The Crocodile Hunter Diaries'' which chronicled his day-to-day life working at his Queensland wildlife park Australia Zoo.
Irwin also appeared on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and ``The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.''
State Funeral
Using his catch-cry of ``Crikey,'' Irwin promoted Australian tourism and appeared in television advertisements extolling the country's quarantine services.
The Queensland government is considering a state funeral for Irwin, AFP cited Premier Peter Beattie as saying.
``He always pushed himself to the very limits, but I thought he was invulnerable and I think he did too,'' Stainton said, according to AFP, adding he never thought Irwin would be killed by ``something like a stingray.''
The attack would have been ``like being stabbed in the heart,'' Geoff Isbister, a clinical toxicologist at Newcastle's Mater hospital said in a statement distributed yesterday by the Australian Science Media Centre.
Stingrays aren't aggressive and sting only when threatened, Bryan Fry, deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, said yesterday.
Irwin is survived by his wife Terri and two children, son Bob and daughter Bindi.
By Bloomberg
Its sad that he died.Lets eat Stingrays and make it extinct.smiles
this picture a bit weird...annd out of alignment..
heres wat we did to honour him...by putting turtles in our msn nick.
To everyone: For those who have msn, put (tu) in ur nick.
To me, I was shocked when i heard that he passed away.I watched some of his croc hunter in animal planet and kid central when i was young.
~JH~
By Ed Johnson
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- A coroner will study video footage of ``Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin's last moments snorkeling with a stingray as part of the investigation into the Australian television star's death, police said.
The 44-year-old died yesterday after being struck in the heart by a stringray's barbed tail while filming a documentary at Batt Reef near Port Douglas, a tourist resort in the state of Queensland. A copy of the footage was given to the state coroner, said Queensland Police spokeswoman Kim McCoomb, who declined to say whether it captured the sea creature's fatal blow.
The video was ``shocking,'' Irwin's friend and producer John Stainton told a news conference today, Agence France-Presse reported. ``It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die. It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him,'' he said, according to the news agency.
Irwin shot to fame after his first wildlife documentary, ``The Crocodile Hunter,'' became a global hit. He went on to film 53 episodes of the Emmy award-nominated ``Croc Files'' and ``The Crocodile Hunter Diaries'' which chronicled his day-to-day life working at his Queensland wildlife park Australia Zoo.
Irwin also appeared on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and ``The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.''
State Funeral
Using his catch-cry of ``Crikey,'' Irwin promoted Australian tourism and appeared in television advertisements extolling the country's quarantine services.
The Queensland government is considering a state funeral for Irwin, AFP cited Premier Peter Beattie as saying.
``He always pushed himself to the very limits, but I thought he was invulnerable and I think he did too,'' Stainton said, according to AFP, adding he never thought Irwin would be killed by ``something like a stingray.''
The attack would have been ``like being stabbed in the heart,'' Geoff Isbister, a clinical toxicologist at Newcastle's Mater hospital said in a statement distributed yesterday by the Australian Science Media Centre.
Stingrays aren't aggressive and sting only when threatened, Bryan Fry, deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne, said yesterday.
Irwin is survived by his wife Terri and two children, son Bob and daughter Bindi.
By Bloomberg
Its sad that he died.Lets eat Stingrays and make it extinct.smiles
this picture a bit weird...annd out of alignment..
heres wat we did to honour him...by putting turtles in our msn nick.
To everyone: For those who have msn, put (tu) in ur nick.
To me, I was shocked when i heard that he passed away.I watched some of his croc hunter in animal planet and kid central when i was young.
~JH~