Queensland's Premier Peter Beattie remarked that Irwin would 'be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian'. Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed 'shock and distress' at Irwin's death, saying that 'Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son'. News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. Reactions Australia Zoo employees mourning Irwin filmed the remainder of the documentary weeks after Irwin's death. Justin Lyons, a cameraman for the documentary, has said that although footage of the incident does exist, he is against its release.

Irwin's widow, Terri, stated in an interview with Access Hollywood aired on 11 January 2014 that the documentary contains no footage that was shot the day he died, and that the footage of his injury and death had been destroyed. Crew members aboard Irwin's boat administered CPR and rushed him to the nearby Low Island, where medical staff pronounced him dead. He initially believed he had only a punctured lung however, the stingray's barb pierced his heart, causing him to bleed to death. While swimming in chest-deep water, Steve Irwin approached a short-tail stingray, with an approximate span of two meters (6.5 ft), from the rear, in order to film it swimming away. The documentary was completed with footage shot in the weeks following the accident, but without including any mention of Irwin's death, aside from a tribute to Irwin at the end. Production was completed on Ocean's Deadliest, which was broadcast in the United States on the Discovery Channel four months after Irwin's death. Irwin's death is the only fatality from a stingray captured on video, although it has not been released to the public, and is one of the few human deaths from stingrays.

During a lull in filming caused by inclement weather, Irwin decided to snorkel in shallow waters while being filmed in an effort to provide footage for his daughter Bindi's television program. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of the documentary Ocean's Deadliest. The stingray's barb pierced his chest, penetrating his thoracic wall and heart, causing massive trauma. On 4 September 2006, Australian zookeeper, conservationist, and television programmer Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while filming in the Great Barrier Reef. Pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray

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