RIP steve irwin

[tonmo]

RIP Steve Irwin -- a true pioneer. He laid it all out. Gave 110% for all of us to enjoy, and learn from. Thank you Steve Irwin!

 

[Phil]

Yep, absolutely as Carol said. This is sad news, he may have been a complete lunatic but his enthusiasm was very infectious. Kids loved him and he did an awful lot of valuable work promoting Australia and Australia Zoo. Very unfortunate, but he really was an accident waiting to happen.

Austin Stevens, take note.

 

[erich orser]

Personally, I'm crushed by this. On the other hand, I always knew he'd be killed by some dangerous wild animal. He spent too much time annoying them for the cameras. He was WAY too cavalier in his treatment of them in how he caught them, how he showed-them off to his audience. For the last many years I've been expecting him to be killed in action by... something. You understand, a venomous snake, or a Komodo Dragon, or a deadly arthropod, or - something. I mean, really, frankly this was inevitable. But a fish? Still, it's a sad, sad thing. He got a lot of the World personally acquainted with what was out there in it. That's always an immortal, great thing. He accomplished something on a popular scale last reached by Jacques Yves-Cousteau. That's hardly unimpressive. He'll be deeply missed by most of us.

Boy he could be annoying.

God rest you, Steve Irwin. You made a bunch of us routinely happy.

That's a real difficult accomplishment.

My sympathies go to Terri and his family. I hope she keeps things going.

Erich

 

[cthulhu77]

What he said.

I only had a chance to work with Steve once, while he was doing some filming on rattlesnakes, and I spent most of my time shaking my head as he picked them up by the tail, etc. Nuts.
But, he also influenced a ton of children about not hunting big game, and how to look at wildlife through excited eyes. Perhaps I didn't agree with his methods, but the end product sure worked. Sad news.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

If only someone could share their enthusiasm for fossils as Steve did for wild animals.

RIP Steve.

 

[legendarycroc]

There is truly some Horrid Irony to this event- just last night around the same time he was killed, I had ray for dinner... (Im not joking). He was my idol throughout my childhood, when I was in the 3rd grade my friends and I used to jump fences and climb trees like him... he even inspired my alias...

"My heart as joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today"

 

[Steve O'Shea]

He accomplished something on a popular scale last reached by Jacques Yves-Cousteau.

... I don't think you should use the names Irwin and Cousteau in the same sentence, on the same page, or book even - heck, these two names should not be mentioned on the same planet! I realise that your reference is to 'scale' though.

Let this be the end to bio-'reality' TV!

 

[Taollan]

Wow, some people seem to be quite annoyed with Mr. Irwin. I must admit, when I first saw the "Croc Hunter" on TV, he rather annoyed me too how he handled the critters. I grew up in a houehold in which me dad (also RIP) kept and bred reptiles and arthropods (snakes, tortoises, geckos, tarantulas, scorpions, beetles, etc.) for the pet trade, some of which were dangerous, so I was familiar with the handling of dangerous animals. The way that he approached these animals seems entirely too arrogant and without their due respect. This view softened greatly over time.
I also agree with you, Steve, that Irwin and Cousteau are in entirely seperate leagues (Cousteau was a scientist, Irwin a zealous zookeeper with a TV show), Irwin, in my belief, has done a great service to biology and conservation. Here in the states, I know many people he helped to inspire become biologists and conservationists. In order for the public at large to care about nature, they need to witness it with there own eyes. Many of these people, living deep in the urban sprawl, or simply too lazy, will never see any more of nature that what comes to them through the tube. Irwin offered this cross-section of people a personal look through awe-fill eyes at some of natures most interesting creatures, in stark constrast to the often austere and dispassionate reporting of many documentaries. While I still do not agree with Irwin's handling of many of these critters, and his personality somewhat grates with me, I have a respect for what he has done. I for one will miss him.

 

[Phil]

Absolutely with Taollan here.

According to Wikipedia, Steve founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, (aka Wildlife Warriors Worldwide), International Crocodile Rescue and the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund with proceeds going to the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. His programmes helped fund and publicise Australia Zoo and he personally bought large tracts of land in Fiji, Australia, Vanuatu and the US to be maintained as wildlife parks. Apparantly he even discovered a species of turtle off Queensland which was named after him!

No matter what one thinks of his programmes, one cannot argue with the validity of those actions, surely?

A tragic loss.

 

[William Tyson]

terribly sad yet ironic

 

[monty]

well put, Taollan & Phil.

 

[PurpleTentacle]

I also agree with you, Steve, that Irwin and Cousteau are in entirely seperate leagues (Cousteau was a scientist, Irwin a zealous zookeeper with a TV show)

Cousteau a scientist? Explorer, sure. Conservationist, sure, at least while the cameras were rolling. But scientist? He always struck me as a silly old french man with access to a lot of money, who liked to dazzle us with footage no one else could afford to go out and shoot. It always seemed to me that his films were just him and his crew playing with expensive toys. Fortunately, his frolic-ing yielded positive results, like increased ocean awareness and SCUBA, but I wouldn't call him a scientist.

Apparently when the Cousteau society folk used to come to the Santa Barbara area, they used the services of the Anacapa Dive Center where a buddy of mine works. Word around the scuttlebutt is that once the cameras were off, the Cousteaus declared open season on just about anything that could swim and ended up killing a whole lot more than they could possibly eat.

 

[erich orser]

... I don't think you should use the names Irwin and Cousteau in the same sentence, on the same page, or book even - heck, these two names should not be mentioned on the same planet! I realise that your reference is to 'scale' though.

Let this be the end to bio-'reality' TV!

Uh, yeah, Steve. That was a reference to 'scale'.

 

[tonmo]

Cousteau was to our oceans
as
Sagan was to our cosmos
as
Fossey was to gorillas
as
Irwin was to reptiles?

 

[erich orser]

Cousteau a scientist? Explorer, sure. Conservationist, sure, at least while the cameras were rolling. But scientist? He always struck me as a silly old french man with access to a lot of money, who liked to dazzle us with footage no one else could afford to go out and shoot. It always seemed to me that his films were just him and his crew playing with expensive toys. Fortunately, his frolic-ing yielded positive results, like increased ocean awareness and SCUBA, but I wouldn't call him a scientist.

Apparently when the Cousteau society folk used to come to the Santa Barbara area, they used the services of the Anacapa Dive Center where a buddy of mine works. Word around the scuttlebutt is that once the cameras were off, the Cousteaus declared open season on just about anything that could swim and ended up killing a whole lot more than they could possibly eat.

Cousteau taught an acquaintance of mine to scuba as a boy while he was dating his mother(this boy's roster of "Mom's new special friends" also included William Shatner). He was a lot more like Bill Murray's character in "The Life Aquatic" than most realize. Not a scientist. There are some stories regarding the "Octopus, Octopus" episode about how he "persuaded" the octopus to demonstrate it's escaping capabilities that I'm not going to repeat here for fear of a libel suit against me and Tonmo. Still, I grew up with Cousteau. He was my first hero, other than Captain Nemo.