just found this on the news site xx
Crocodile expert Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray while diving off the northeast coast of Australia.
The fish pierced the chest of TV's famous khaki-clad 'Crocodile Hunter', while the 44-year-old was filming an underwater documentary off Port Douglas in northern Queensland.
A helicopter rushed paramedics to nearby Low Isles, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane, where Irwin was taken for treatment, but he was dead before they arrived, police said.
Local diving operator Steve Edmonson, whose boats were out on the Great Barrier Reef when the accident happened, said: "Steve was hit by a stingray in the chest - he probably died from a cardiac arrest from the injury."
In 2004, Irwin caused outrage by holding his then one-month-old baby in front of a hungry crocodile. His TV series ended after he was criticised over the incident and also for allegedly disturbing whales, seals and penguins while filming in Antarctica.
Stingrays have sometimes been called the "pussycats" of the sea because of their generally non-aggressive nature. However, when threatened, they can whip up their toxic tails in an instance, causing excruciating pain to humans.
Their barbed stinger grows from the tail like a fingernail and is covered with a toxic venom but deaths from contact with the barb are rare.
The largest species of stingray can grow to about 13ft (4m) in length or width and their tails are often twice as long as their bodies.
how sad my thoughts go out to his family xx