A cameraman recently shared the tragic final moments of Steve Irwin’s life following a fatal stingray attack.
Steve Irwin, widely recognized as the Crocodile Hunter, died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44. He was attacked by a stingray while filming on the Great Barrier Reef.
The stingray, reportedly measuring six feet across, struck Irwin in the chest with its venomous tail barbs.
Irwin, an Australian zookeeper and environmentalist, was known for his numerous television series that showcased his daring encounters with a variety of dangerous animals.
Justin Lyons, a cameraman who accompanied Irwin on many of his adventures, had been working on the docuseries The Crocodile Hunter for over a decade when Irwin tragically died.
Lyons has since revealed details about Irwin’s last moments and discussed whether the footage of his death still exists.
As they waited for tiger sharks to take their bait in the Great Barrier Reef, Lyons described how Irwin became restless.
“We never wasted a minute. We were always shooting and because we had some spin-off shows, we used every frame of every shot,” Lyons remembered.
Consequently, Lyons and Irwin decided to use an inflatable boat to search for tiger sharks around the sandy flats.
They soon encountered a stingray, which Lyons noted they had filmed numerous times before in various water depths.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Lyons said, “We knew the behaviour. We weren’t scared of them, Steve had handled them and filmed with them. We thought this was going to be a joy. […] We were swimming around him, he’d glide off and settle on the bottom.”
However, this particular stingray was the largest bull ray Lyons had ever seen, measuring six feet wide with a ‘jagged-edge barb’ on its tail.
Unlike their previous experiences with stingrays, this encounter took a tragic turn.
Lyons recounted, “[Irwin] swam up right over its tail. Instead of swimming off, [the bull ray] propped himself on the front of its wings and pushed its rear end up and started madly stabbing with its tail towards Steve.
“The water boiled with bubbles, thrashing and whatnot. The entire time I was locked on Steve. I didn’t know what was going on, I could see it was trying to stab Steve and he was pushing it away but it was over in about 10-15 seconds.”
Lyons continued, “The stingray swam off so I panned to film Steve swimming away. It wasn’t until I panned back and the water around him was already filling with blood that I realized.”
Irwin suffered two fatal punctures to his lungs. Despite the team’s best efforts to perform CPR while rushing him to shore—continuing to film as per Irwin’s instruction that someone always keep filming—the conservationist had already passed away.
The footage capturing Irwin’s stingray encounter was initially lost when the team cut off the inflatable boat for a faster trip to shore. However, it was later retrieved and shown to the team before being handed over to the police.
According to Sky News, the footage is believed to have been given to Irwin’s widow, Terri.
The distressing footage has never been publicly released.