Steve Irwin Dead

FOOTAGE of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin being fatally attacked by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef has been handed to Queensland police as fans worldwide come to grips with the "freak" death.

Irwin, 44, was killed almost instantly when the stingray stabbed him in the heart with its poisonous 20cm barb as he snorkelled off Port Douglas, in north Queensland, yesterday morning.

Irwin was shooting a documentary on dangerous marine life, in shallow water at Batt Reef, about 32 nautical miles offshore, at about 11am.

While my sympathies go out to Steve's family and friends, can the press please stop calling Irwin's death a "freak accident?" He was, after all, swimming with "dangerous marine life" and he made his living by wrestling with crocodiles.

I mean if the sting ray had pulled out a 9mm and shot Steve that would be one thing, but the string ray was simply reacting to a perceived threat and struck out in defense; hardly what I would call a "freak accident. " It's called inherent nature.