Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin was born on 22 February 1962. He achieved worldwide fame from the television program The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series co-hosted with his wife Terri Irwin. Together, they also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by his parents in Beerwah, Queensland. He died in 2006 after being fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship MV Steve Irwin was named in his honour, christened by his wife Terri, who said “If Steve were alive, he’d be aboard with them!”
In 1992, Irwin married Terri Raines from Eugene, Oregon, United States. The pair had met a few months earlier, when Terri had visited the zoo on a holiday; according to both of them, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, “I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy.” Although he and Terri were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings; in their line of work, wearing jewelery could pose a hazard to them and/or the animals.
Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as “the reason [he] was put on the Earth.” His wife once said, “The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more.”
Terri Irwin recently reported that Steve had an ongoing premonition that he would die before he reached age 40. She wrote about this in her book Steve and Me about their lives together.
On 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, at Batt Reef, which is located off the coast of Port Douglas in north Queensland. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, Ocean’s Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for a segment in the television program his daughter Bindi Irwin was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague, John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the stingrays. “He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat the Croc One.
The events were caught on camera, and a copy of the footage was handed to the Queensland Police. After reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spearfisherman Ben Cropp speculated that the stingray “felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead.” In such a case, the stingray responds to danger by automatically flexing the serrated spine on its tail (which can measure up to 25 cm/10 in in length) in an upward motion.
