Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:00 am
Terri Irwin to be in town today to sign deal with OSU for sponsorship
Gazette-Times
Terri Irwin, the widow of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, is scheduled to be in Corvallis today to sign an agreement with Oregon State University to fund two humpback whale research projects.
Word of the studies first surfaced last December from Australia during interviews between Terri Irwin and journalists there.
With more than $1 million in the funding, Bruce Mate, director of OSU's Marine Mammal Institute, plans to lead two research projects in American Samoa and Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for intensive studies of whale breeding, foraging, migration and stock identification.
Terri Irwin and her late husband became international celebrities through their syndicated television program on the Animal Planet network, "The Crocodile Hunter."
It was during a filming of a wildlife segment that Steve Irwin was killed in September 2006 while diving off the coast of Australia. Months before his death, Irwin had chartered a vessel as part of preparation for filming a special in the Antarctic. Terri Irwin gave the use of that charter to OSU, which used it to study humpback whales.
"It was (worth) probably $80,000 or more," Mate said in an earlier interview. "We named a whale after Steve."
Since Steve Irwin's death, Terri Irwin and her 9-year-old daughter Bindi have continued and expanded wildlife education and conservation efforts. Bindi Irwin hosts the "Bindi the Jungle Girl" television program, for which she won the 2008 Daytime Emmy award for outstanding performer in a children's series.
She and her 4-year-old brother Robert also are scheduled to attend the signing ceremony.