The sad death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter

I feel so badly about the death of Steve Irwin. From my point of view, I feel the most sorry for his little 8 year old girl. You could tell that she completely idolized her Daddy. Seeing her with him, you could see the love between them at all times. She is old enough to really realize that he won't be with her anymore, where as her little brother is too little to really grasp it yet and even though he won't ever have his Daddy or probably many memories of him, the little girl will be the one really hurting due to her age. I feel for his wife too. I can't imagine losing my Steve at all, but especially with two little one's at home. I do think though, that she knew the danger that Steve was in day after day. Steve himself talked about it often at interviews. I just think they figured if it happened it would happen from something other than a stingray.
It was such a senseless death. With all the dangerous things he dealt with, having a stingray take his life is so ironic. When I first heard about it, I thought about a couple of things. First I felt very sad for the family. Then I thought about how this might hurt the business of Shawn and Carli and all the people in Grand Cayman that rely on people taking trips to Stingray City to swim with the stingrays. I thought about the media and how they were going to portray the whole thing and I wondered if people would be able to deferentiate between a stingray from Grand Cayman and one at a barrier reef in Australia. There is a wide difference. On AOL yesterday they had a big picture of a stingray and said it was from Grand Cayman and it was beside the story of Steve Irwins death. So people can look at that stingray and think "Oh, that's what killed Steve Irwin, than I am not going to go swim with one." But the type of stingrays in Grand Cayman cannot be found in Australia and vice versa. They are so different.
The stingrays in Australia where Steve Irwin was doing the documentary probably have never seen a human being or a huge camera in front of them with some weird disturbances around him. Things were different and he reacted with what God gave him to protect himself. They said the cameraman was in front of him and Steve Irwin was directly over him. I am sure that stingray felt threatened, so he struck him. Since he was swimming in the water and Steve was over him, there was nothing he could do to protect himself but to strike up at the thing that he felt threatened by. Normally stingrays stay toward the bottom and they strike at people when they are stepped on, so typically the "stings" are done on the foot or leg.
The stingrays in Cayman are far different. For one, most of the stingrays that are swimming at the sandbar at Stingray City have been there since birth. They were brought up around people. Literally hundreds of people a day are brought out there and they are fed well by the boat captains to keep them around. When they see the squid being dangled in the water by a boat captain they are more than happy to come swim up and be held or stroked. As you can see from the picture above, Steve and I went swimming with them, and Rennell, who works for Shawn, holds these creatures constantly. They are gentle creatures who swim very gracefully through the water. The people in Cayman have been swimming with them since the 1950's and never once has anyone died and in that area no one has ever been stung. Before the people go in the water they are instructed to just never grab a stingray by the tail and while walking around, shuffle your feet. Everyone should do this in shallow water at anyplace with salt water as stingrays are everywhere. We even see them where we go boating here in Florida.
Some think that the tail will cause an electrical jolt. I even heard the media talk about this and they assumed that was what also caused Steve to die, because not only did the "tail" go through his heart but caused him to get an electic shock. Actually there is no electrical shock or jolt, the "tail" carries a toxin in it. So once they pierce you, a toxin is realeased. It is an incredibly painful thing to have happen to you, but after treatment and healing, you will have no other side effects. I would suggest if you ever have a chance to go swim with them in a controlled environment, do it without fear. It is an amazing experience, and I don't believe you will be in any danger.
Steve Irwin was a passionate, amazing person who will be greatly missed by a lot of people. I wish his family and friends all the best. They are at least getting a huge outpouring of love and prayers directed their way.