Sad news…Everyone’s favorite crocodile hunter has died.

Via CNN.com

Steve Irwin, the TV presenter known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” has died after being stung by a stingray in a marine accident off Australia’s north coast.

Media reports say Irwin was snorkeling at Batt Reef, a part of the Great Barrier Reef about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) from the town of Port Douglas, when the incident happened on Monday morning.

Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest, according to Cairns police sources.

Irwin was in the area to film pieces for a show called “Ocean’s Deadliest” with Phillippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques, Irwin’s manager and friend John Stainton told CNN’s “American Morning.” But weather had prevented the crew from doing work for that program, said Stainton, so Irwin decided to do some softer features for a new children’s TV show he was doing with his daughter, Bindi.

“He came over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand, and the barb came up and hit him in the chest,” said Stainton.

Wildlife documentary maker Ben Cropp, citing a colleague who saw footage of the attack, told TIME that Irwin had accidently boxed the animal in, causing it to attack. “It stopped and twisted and threw up its tail with the spike, and it caught him in the chest,” said Cropp. “It’s a defensive thing. It’s like being stabbed with a dirty dagger.”

Though stingrays can be threatening, their sting — usually prompted by self-defense — is not often fatal. The bull ray that apparently stung Irwin was “a one-in-a-million thing,” Cropp told TIME. “I have swum with many rays, and I have only had one do that to me.”

[Update: From 37signals.com comes one of the best write-ups that I've seen about Steve Irwin and his passion for his work:

He taught by sharing his joy about his work, not by preaching to people or scaring people with worst-case-scenarios. From 5000 miles away he made you smile.

Steve was authentic, passionate, curious, and deeply knowledgeable about his craft. He approached his work with a off-the-charts level of enthusiasm. We should all have as much fun at our jobs. We should all love what we do as much as Steve loved what he did.

Most of all he had a tremendous respect for his work and the animals he worked with. Any bites, any mishaps, any close calls were his fault, not the animal’s. Steve was in their territory, they weren’t in his. And he reminded his audience of this all the time.

]