Keiko Dies
USATODAY reports :: Keiko the killer whale, star of 'Free Willy' movies, dies
Keiko of Free Willy fame has died in a Norwegian bay. He died after a bout of pneumonia. His caretaker Dane Richards told The Associated Press that the illness struck the 25-foot mammal fairly quickly. He is said to be about 26 years old. Keiko was believed to have ben born in 1977 or 1978. In the wild, killer whales can live an average of 35 years.
Keiko, which means "Lucky One" in Japanese, was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the marine park industry. Keiko's stardom came from the three
Free Willy films, in which a young boy befriends a captive killer whale and persuades him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom. The movement to free Keiko started in 1993 after he was found ailing in a Mexico City aquarium. He was rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998.
His handlers rehabilitated him for the wild, teaching him to catch live fish in an operation that cost about US$500,000 a month. That same amount paid for a year of care in Norway, according to the
Free Willy Foundation in San Francisco.
In July 2002, Keiko, was released from Iceland in the hope that he would return to the wild. But he swam straight for Norway on a 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for
human companionship.
Norway, the only country that hunts whales for profit, Keiko's choice was a shock to many fans, who feared that whalers would go after him. But
Orcas are protected in Norway, which only hunts minke whales, and authorities assured the world he was safe.
But now it is time to say goodbye to Keiko for in a way he is finally free.
~~H0ME!
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