Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

A local marine biologist yesterday told of how a run of poor weather and bad luck in finding the fish led Irwin to pursue deadly stingrays.

Irwin's body was yesterday taken from the morgue at Cairns Hospital to the airport in a dark blue hearse.

It was then loaded on to a Cessna seaplane owned by his friend and former ironman Grant Kenny and flown to his distraught wife and children on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Terri Irwin remained with children Bindi, 8, and Bob, 2, at their home in the family's Australia Zoo yesterday, too upset to speak about her husband's freak accident that was caught on film as he snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef on Monday.

Irwin's zoo remained open yesterday as hundreds of mourners placed flowers at the entrance in an almost "Diana-esque" tribute.

Queensland Police yesterday ruled out any suspicious circumstances in relation to Irwin's death, confirming he died from the barb of the stringray to his chest rather than the powerful poison the bull ray would have released into his blood system.

It emerged the crocodile hunter's final act was to pull from his chest the jagged knife-like barb that pierced his heart.

Friends yesterday said Irwin had spent Sunday, Fathers' Day, missing his children and that he had also missed a phone call from his family.

On Saturday, a local marine biologist offered to show Irwin, 44, a place on an outer reef where the pair of stonefish lived, after learning that Irwin had been unsuccessfully searching for adult specimens.

"So I took a dive and for the first time in living memory, they weren't there, I couldn't believe it," he said yesterday.

"If I found them, Steve would have concentrated on them and not gone after the rays."

The next day Irwin's quest was dealt another blow by bad weather and they stayed on the boat discussing their plans, including a report of "a lot of stingrays" in the shallows of Batt Reef, about 32 nautical miles offshore from Port Douglas, north Queensland.

According to cinematographer and captain of Irwin's support boat, Peter West, Irwin was the consumate entertainer on Fathers' Day, his last full day alive, sharing tales with his crew to lift them from a despondency about being away from their families.

Mr West, who was working with the famed Crocodile Hunter for the first time, said Irwin only ever had two topics of conversation: "Work and family."

"We were on the boat and discussing how filming was proceeding and listening to Steve's stories," Mr West said.

"It just went into family and he knew I had my first baby at home and that I was missing my first Fathers' Day.

"He was saying how he missed, like all of us, his family and we started trading stories, including how my little girl (10 months old) couldn't yet say dad.

"We all had a great laugh when he said, 'Well, that's better than me because I got called mum, mum for the first month'."

Unknown to Irwin was that his wife, Terri and two children - Bindi, 8 and Bob, 2 - were trying to call him for Fathers' Day.

Irwin did not receive the message sent before his death. Friend John Stainton yesterday said he last spoke to Terri and the children about a week ago.

"We missed a phone call on the boat because communication on the boat was very patchy," he said. "We missed a phone call from her and the children."

However, on the afternoon following Irwin's death, Mr Stainton discovered a text message on his mobile from Terri. "I had an SMS on my phone from her saying that the children send their love, that was all," he said. Irwin had just spent a month with his children in central Cape York's Lakefield National Park catching crodiles for research. Mr Stainton said that Irwin had captured 32 crocodiles in five weeks and was doing "mind-blowing research" on tracking their movements.

"Steve said to me on the boat, on Croc One, at the end of the Lakefield research trip, as we were leaving to go out for this doco, 'John, I've had the best month of my life'. I said, 'Gee, that's a big statement, Steve' and he said, 'No, it's the best month of my life' and that's great."

A spokesman for Quicksilver, owners of a charter boat company whose employees tried to resusitate Irwin after he was taken to Low Isle, said there was little that could be done for the star.

Cairns Superintendent Mike Keating said yesterday the death could not be blamed on Irwin. "There is no evidence that Mr Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray," he said.

"My advice is that he was observing the stingray."

Mr Stainton said he had watched the "shocking" footage of his friend's death.

"It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die and it's terrible," he said.