File This One Under Hazards Of The Occupation
The television personality known as the Crocodile Hunter is dead at 44, killed by the barb of a stingray:
Steve Irwin, the TV presenter known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” has died after being stung by a stingray in a marine accident off Australia’s north coast.
Media reports say Irwin was snorkeling at Batt Reef, a part of the Great Barrier Reef about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) from the town of Port Douglas, when the incident happened on Monday morning.
Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest, according to Cairns police sources.
Irwin was in the area to film pieces for a show called “Ocean’s Deadliest” with Phillippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques, Irwin’s manager and friend John Stainton told CNN’s “American Morning.” But weather had prevented the crew from doing work for that program, said Stainton, so Irwin decided to do some softer features for a new children’s TV show he was doing with his daughter, Bindi.
“He came over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand, and the barb came up and hit him in the chest,” said Stainton.
Truly bizarre, and sad (my intention is not to make light of it). Still, this solidifies my feeling (perhaps residue of having seen Jaws at a young age) that the ocean is not to trifled with and is, all-in-all, a pretty horrifying place best viewed from the comfort of a luxury hotel’s balcony…
Agreed – having experienced the nasty stuff that happens here with the Great Lakes (undertows, sudden storms in the middle of the lake), I greatly respect the inherent dangers of the ocean. Almost got caught in a riptide about 10 years ago near Big Sur, and was scared sh–less. Not to mention my paranoia about Jellyfish and Bull Sharks…
Honestly, this really bums me out. Like I said elsewhere, not a moment ago, whether or not you liked the guy, he was doing something relentlessly positive in increasing our awareness of the world in which we live. This is a real loss.