Crikey! He is gone.

I was clicking from site to site and came across a mention that Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, died yesterday while filming off the Australian coast.  Here is a statement from the Australia Zoo website:

Media statement – 4 September 2006

Steve Irwin

At 11am today, 4 September 2006, Steve Irwin was fatally wounded by a stingray barb to his heart while filming a sequence on Batt Reef off Port Douglas for a new TV series.

Emergency services were called from Cairns Rescue Base and met Croc One, Steve’s rescue vessel, at Low Isle on the Great Barrier Reef.  The Croc One crew performed constant CPR during the thirty-minute dash to Low Isle, but Steve was pronounced deceased at 12 noon by Queensland Ambulance Services personnel.

His producer and closest friend, John Stainton said on Croc One today, “The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet. He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. Steve would have said, ‘Crocs Rule!’??

      

The blogosphere is buzzing with this tragic news.  As sad as it is that he will no longer be around to show us the beauty in these creatures he loved so much and which we feared, he died doing the work he loved and that is more than most of us will be able to claim when our time comes.