Steve Irwin

Close friend explains the circumstances of Steve's death

Mr. Stainton believes that the poor weather experienced in the far north may have been, in part, the cause of Steve Irwin's death.

"One problem Steve had was that he couldn't sit still for five seconds and because the weather was bad today and for the last couple of days, he'd been like a caged lion because he hadn't really been able to do anything too much and he said 'look I might just go off and shoot some segments'... anything that would keep him moving and his adrenaline going and that's what happened... and the next thing I heard on the radio was that there was a medical emergency and the little dinghy was bringing him back with the crew... everyone tried absolutely tirelessly to revive him, to keep him alive."


"Steve decided to shoot a couple of segments for a new TV show that he's doing with his daughter Bindi and, with the cameramen, went out on to the reef at Batt Reef to do a little segment on stingrays. He came over the top of the stingray... and the stingray's barb went up and went into his chest and put a hole into his heart."

Mr. Stainton said the team responded quickly to get Steve back to his research vessel Croc 1 and then on to Low Isles where they were to meet an emergency rescue team.

"We were doing constant CPR trying to resuscitate him... when we got there it was probably ten to twelve and by twelve o'clock when the emergency crew arrived they pronounced him dead."


the poison of the stingray causes a drop in blood pressure too
stingray poison - Google Search