My 5 year old nephew is a big fan of the croc hunter, He will be heart broke when he gets the news.

But like many others have said, at least he got to go doing what he loved. I hope that I am that lucky when it's my time to go home

He'll truly be missed. To just think he never actually got bit by a poisonous snake and this happens. But as long as he died happy in his khakis doing what he loved.

Apparently Steve was passing overhead when the stingray attacked, no deliberate contact as some have suggested. The huge barb alone seems to have inflicted a fatal puncture wound to the heart. I've been stung by our tiny rays along the California Coast. Within seconds the affected limb experiences excrutiating pain travelling up to the groin. The fastest relief, and used by our lifeguards is HOT WATER to break down the invenomated proteins.

It seems they have it on tape. Dont know if we will ever see it though. I bet we do eventually.

Very sad news indeed.

STEVE Irwin made the fatal decision to interrupt his normal filming schedule yesterday morning when a large group of stingrays captured his attention.

http://tinyurl.com/ea6ja

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

I heard on the news last night that he pulled the multi-pointed barb out of his heart himself.....the instinctive thing all of us have in us to do. This led to bleeding in the sac around the heart (not up on my anatomy terminology) leading to heart failure because of pressure, etc? They said they tried CPR also.

Anybody that knows something about this and the medical field want to elaborate? I don't have a clue, just relaying what I remember they said. An autopsy is in the works, they also said.

Stingray barbs are stiff cartilagenous weapons with multiple barbs and a single long groove. The venom runs down this groove. Pulling one out causes additional tissue trauma. That much venom around the pulmonary sac would likely have caused a massive heart attack within minutes. The family wants the tape made public. The 'news' services are building stingrays into Great White Sharks. When JAWS came out, I had to disperse a frenzied group of people killing a beached pilot whale <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. I imagine this will take some pressure off killer bears and survival threads about the best handgun. Steve was about education. What can we learn from this?

That life will kill you in unexpected ways.

This is sort of like a guy who makes his living on a tight-rope and a trapeze getting himself killed tripping over a crack in a sidewalk.

Seriously, swimming with a bunch of sting rays is probably one of the safest things that he has ever done on his show. I always figured that an angry croc or a venomous snake would get him. But to be done in by a creature that is usually considered to be docile is one of those things that you probably can't plan for.

He will be missed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/05/irwin.death/index.html