Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

"Crikey, education's the most important thing"

"When I talk to the camera, mate, it's not like I'm talking to the camera, I'm talking to you because I want to whip you around and plunk you right there with me. "
Steve Irwin

Someone irreplaceable passed on, today. A sting-ray killed the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin. Irwin, 44, 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 he was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest, according to Cairns police sources.

I used to watch him on Animal Planet, entertaining and educating the public while he jumped on the backs of wild animals like alligators, crocodiles, Komodo dragons, all kinds of snakes big and small, but today luck ran out, and while he was filming a documentary on stingrays, he swam over a startled large ray that whipped its barbed tail upwards into his chest. He died instantly.

Steve Irwin was a very special person whose energy and enthusiasm empowered the public to better understand and become involved in conservation and science.

He once said, "See, I've always seen Jacques Cousteau as a hero, mate. He's a legend - like my dad, just a legend. And so what he did for conservation in the '60s through the '70s was just phenomenal." What Steve Irwin did was phenomenal, too.

A demi-god is the meaning for the word hero. Steve Irwin was a hero for wildlife and conservation, highlighting the plight of threatened species and he died doing what he loved best. We should all be that lucky.