The show Steve Irwin was filming when he met an untimely death is airing this evening on Animal Planet. The 90-minute documentary, Ocean's Deadliest, will be narrated by Philippe Cousteau who was with Irwin during production. Afterward, stay tuned for Crikey! What an Adventure which is a 30-minute tribute to Steve Irwin's life. Neither show is purported to cover the topic of stingrays.

Let us know what you think tomorrow.

[Via The Daily Telegraph]

Bizarrely echoing Steve Irwin's recent tragedy, an 81-year-old South Florida resident James Bertakis was in his 16-foot jet boat yesterday with his two adult granddaughters when a a young spotted eagle ray leapt from the water, "flew into the boat," and stabbed Bertakis in the heart, leaving a foot-long toxic barb lodged in his chest. His granddaughters piloted the boat to shore and -- oddly -- rushed him home. Soon after, medical officials found Bertakis lying on his living room floor, conscious, breathing, but complaining of excruciating pain. The paramedics collected him and rushed him to the hospital. He underwent heart surgery last night, where surgeons discovered Bertaki was suffering from a closed chest wound and a collapsed lung. Frighteningly, the doctors were able to remove only a portion of the barb. Unable to locate the rest, they fear it might have migrated.

Out of water, the 30-pound ray died on the boat. Local fire officials recovered the ray and are keeping it in a garbage bag at the station house, indicating they might need it later in an investigation. For a video report of the attack -- and to see the ray -- check out Channel 4 video.

Unless you live under a rock, by now you know about Steve Irwin's encounter with a bull ray that ended quite tragically. And of course, as a diver, you've almost certainly heard about Stingray City, Cayman's interactive feeding site wherein snorkelers are dropped in 5 to 12 feet of water, given chum to attract stingrays, and allowed to frolic with the rays for an hour or so. If you've ever been, you know it can be crowded, fun, unnerving, and exhilarating. But guess what's happened to tourist bookings since Irwin's death last month? According to Cayman Net News, bookings for the site have declined 60-100%! Additionally, the Caymanian Compass is reporting that one operator -- Captain Asley's Watersports -- has not taken a single new booking to Stingray City since Irwin's death (although they haven't suffered any cancellations, either). At this time of the year, they should be booking into Christmas and even next spring!

Certainly, as people come to understand that Irwin's was a freak accident (only 17 people in the whole world have died from a stingray attack!), they will return to the family friendly destination. In the meantime, I know where you can get a great deal on a private charter to Stingray City...

While busily promoting Ocean Adventures, Jean-Michel Cousteau was recently asked about Steve Irwin and his unfortunate death. Cousteau claims he had "a lot of respect" for Irwin, and while ha agreed with Irwin's message, he disagreed with his methods. According to Cousteau, Irwin would: "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years -- a lot many more years that he's been alive -- and I don't mess with nature."

Hmmm... Mr. Cousteau, have you already forgotten about your recent shark-riding stunt?

Last week, of course, Steve Irwin died after a stingray barb punctured his heart. Sadly -- and just as we had feared -- lifeless stingray bodies are starting to appear on some Australian beaches. In fact, local officials have discovered as many as 10 dead rays on local beaches. Fearing "it may be some sort of retribution, or it may be fear from certain individuals, or it just may be yet another callous act toward wildlife," Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's Wildlife Warriors conservation group, wants to remind people that killing stingrays was "not what Steve was about." In other words, please don't seek revenge on an otherwise innocent stingray. News of revenge killings will not ripple through the secret underground community of stingrays, discouraging them from protecting themselves in the future.

Not only is it silly to participate in "revenge killings," it's also illegal. Rick Symons, government fisheries manager of animal welfare, said that offenders could be prosecuted if "evidence of cruelty" was discovered.

If YOU are ever unfortunate enough to be stung by a stingray, do you know what you're supposed to do? I didn't. Happily, Gadling points us to the answer: relax and soak the wound in the hottest water you can tolerate. If you want to know what a stingray sting feels like, check out Underwater Insider, in which Stephen Frink describes his encounter with a stingray. Obviously, he survived, but it sounds like the experience was decidedly un-fun. Ouch.

Of course, by now everyone has heard about Steve Irwin's unusual death. But what was Irwin -- a man known to take risks on land -- doing in the water? After all, his shows describe terrestrial animals: usually, he leaves the underwater stuff to folks like Cousteau. According to people on the boat, Irwin had been looking for a well-known pair of giant stonefish that live in the area. Unable to find them and because of poor weather, Irwin decided to investigate a report of "a lot of stingrays" in the shallows of nearby Batt Reef. Sadly, the biologist who was trying to show Irwin the stonefish claims that if he had been able to spot them, "Steve would have concentrated on them and not gone after the rays." This Monday-morning quarterbacking, of course, is pointless, and I hope he doesn't blame himself for Irwin's bizarre death.

Although some have wondered if Irwin was killed by poison on the ray's barb, local officials announced that Irwin died as a result of being struck in the heart by the the barb -- not because of any poison. Moreover, they have determined "There is no evidence that Mr Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray." Instead, it appears it was a case of bad, sad timing.

Interestingly, Irwin's manager John Stainton claims that if Irwin "was going to go, we always said it was going to be in the ocean. On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving, and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Yesterday, I was driving down the road, listening to the radio when I heard it: Steve Irwin, popularly known as The Crocodile Hunter, had died. Not to be melodramatic, but I know I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news. But a stingray killed him? How in the world did that happen? Although they do have a stinging barb, the chance that someone could be killed by one is so incredibly small...

First, of course, my condolences go to his family.

Second, I hope that people don't start freaking out about stingrays. Stingrays are among the gentlest animals you can encounter while diving, so let's not start calling for the culling of the animal or some other such nonsense. It was a horrible, awful freak accident -- not an attack.

Third, let's get some perspective on what happened. There's a ton of information on the Web right now. Let's try to whittle away the garbage and see what we're left with:

• Normally filming on land, Irwin was taking a break from filming a new documentary called Ocean's Deadliest.
• During the break, he decided to film a sequence for his 8-year-old daughter Bindi's new TV series about small animals on the reef.
• The cameras were rolling when Irwin was struck in the chest by a stingray's barb. Evidently, video footage "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."
• After being stung, Irwin pulled the barb from his chest himself, before he lost consciousness and died. I'm speculating here, but it seems possible that if he had not done this, he could've lasted longer. "It's not the going in that causes the damage, it's the coming out where those deep serrations kind of pull on the flesh, and you end up with a very jagged tear which is quite a pronounced injury," said Dr Bryan Fry, deputy director of the Australian Venom Research Unit. Doctors might've done something different.
• There was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray.
• However, marine ecologist Sean Connell claims he has "never heard of an unprovoked attack from a stingray."
• Worldwide, researchers know of 17 people who have died as a result of stingray venom. However, Irwin's death was only the third known stingray death in Australian waters.
• Hundreds of mourners have come to pay their respects for the man who made the phrase "Crikey!" famous.
• Cephalodpodcast points us to a report of another person who was stung in the heart by a stingray...and survived!
• UPDATE: A bit more here.

Sister blog TV Squad picked up the story of Irwin's death this morning. I'm sad he died - I was just watching the Crocodile Hunter movie with my daughter the other day. The reports say that he was stung by a sting ray in the chest - actually in the heart. I'm pretty surprised at how he died. Sting ray stings are certainly known to hurt, but death from one is pretty rare.

UPDATE: More information is now available.