Saturday, Dec 13, 2003

Killer whale Keiko, star of Free Willy movies, dies in Norway

OSLO (AP) - Keiko, the killer whale star of the Free Willy movies has died, his caretakers said early Saturday morning.
The whale, which was 27-years-old, died after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord in Norway on Friday afternoon.

His animal-care specialist, Dane Richards, said the disease struck the cetacean fairly quickly.

"He exhibited some signs of lethargy and lack of appetite," Richards said early Saturday morning.

Richards said Keiko's illness was sudden and veterinarians had monitored his progress but the whale died quickly.

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"We checked his respiration rate and it was a little irregular...he wasn't doing too well," Richard said.

"Early in the evening, he passed away."

Keiko, which means Lucky One in Japanese, was rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998. His handlers there prepared him for the wild, teaching him to catch live fish in an operation that cost $500,000 US a month. That amount now pays for a year of care, Free Willy Foundation founder and president David Phillips said in an e- mail from California.

Keiko was released from Iceland in July 2002. He swam straight for Norway on a 1,400-kilometre trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship.

Keiko first turned up near the village Halsa in late August or early September 2002. He allowed fans to pet and play with him, even crawl on his back, becoming such an attraction animal-protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him.

Nick Braden, a spokesman of the Humane Society of the United States, said veterinarians gave Keiko antibiotics after he showed signs of lethargy but it wasn't apparent how sick he was.

"They really do die quickly and there was nothing we could do," he said.

Braden said "it's a really sad moment for us but we do believe we gave him a chance to be in the wild."

Keiko's stardom came from the three Free Willy films, in which a young boy befriends a captive killer whale and coaxes him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom.

That launched an $20-million drive to make Keiko the first orca truly returned to nature.

Keiko's keepers said the whale seemed to adapt to living in the wild, despite so many years in captivity, learning to slap his tail and do jumps called side breaches that are typically done to stun fish in the wild.

To keep Keiko in shape, his caretakers took him on "walks," leading him around the fjords from a small boat at least three times a week.

Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the marine park industry. The drive to free him started in 1993, after he was found ailing in a Mexico City aquarium.

In November, Keiko was coaxed to his new home at Taknes Bay, still in Halsa but - handlers hoped - farther from the crowds.

On the Net:

Keiko: aquarium.org/keiko/index.htm