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| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
For those of you who say he had it coming for all his flagrant disregard for safety, this is actually somewhat ironic as stingrays are some of the most docile creatures you'll find in the ocean. There have been only 17 reported deaths since 1996. And in nearly every instance people have only been stung when they've stepped on them. And even then, it's extremly rare that someone would die from stingray venom as they are not nearly as toxic as some other aquatic wildlife. I've had the pleasure of feeding quite a few stingray, and I'm going on a stingray scuba trip in a few days where literally 20-30 are swarming around you ... if you rub some squid on your dive buddy's arm, they'll hoover over there and give them a good hickey with their vacumn cleaner mouths
What happend to Irwin is that he probably didn't even notice the stingray:

And approached it head on. I would imagine he might have kicked it with his fin accidentally and the stingray directed its barb upwards to strike him in the chest. It sounds like an extremly freak accident that is really no one's fault. At least that's what I keep telling myself for my upcoming dive trip |
I fully agree with what you say. Where are you going diving? I've been to stingray city in the Caymans twice now. Never a problem.
According to a cameraman on how it happened:
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"It's a very hard thing to watch because you're watching somebody die and it's terrible."
Mr Stainton, also a producer and director of Irwin's popular television shows, said the footage showed Mr Irwin pulling the barb out of his chest before losing consciousness.
'The tail came up'
"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here [in the chest], and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone.
"That was it. The cameraman had to shut down."
Mr Stainton, who was aboard Irwin's vessel Croc One when the tragedy occurred, said it was most likely the television star and naturalist died almost immediately as a result of the stingray's blow.
"[He was] probably a metre coming over the top of it," he said.
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source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...7222098946.html
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