Crocodile Hunter Killed

Sad News, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter has been killed:

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

Crew members aboard Irwin’s 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 a short time later, the statement said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword “Crikey!” in his television program “Crocodile Hunter,” which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

It is really too bad because I loved the Crocodile Hunter series.  Many people thought the guy was crazy doing what he did on the show, but I never thought the things he did with the crocodiles or the snakes would ever kill him.  He had the crocs figured out and I figured if he ever was bitten by a snake he would have anti-venom on the scene for whatever snake he was dealing with.  I always thought if the guy was going to be killed by his job, it would be by a shark.  He used to swim around with the sharks which I thought was stupid because it isn’t like you can swim away from a shark.  A pissed off crocodile you can run away from, a pissed off shark you have no chance.  I never would have thought he would have been killed by a stingray though.  Very strange incident, but I’m sure more info will come out about what happened.

Right now I just feel really bad for his family.  His wife is actually an American from Oregon which he had two children ages 8 and 3 with.  Terrible loss.