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Sat 13 Dec, 2003 08:36 am
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'Free Willy' whale, Keiko, dies
Friday, December 12, 2003 Posted: 11:41 PM EST (0441 GMT)
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the "Free Willy" movies, has died in Norwegian coastal waters where he remained after millions of dollars and a decade of work failed to coax him back to the open sea, his caretakers said early Saturday.
The whale, who was 27, died Friday afternoon after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord. He was old for an orca in captivity, though wild orca live an average of 35 years.
David Phillips, executive director of the San Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, said Keiko had been in good health but started showing signs of lethargy and loss of appetite on Thursday.
"This is a long sad day for us," Phillips said.
One of his handlers, Dale Richards, also said Keiko died quickly. "We checked his respiration rate and it was a little irregular ... he wasn't doing too well," Richards told The Associated Press. "Early in the evening, he passed away."
Keiko -- which means "Lucky One" in Japanese -- was captured in Iceland in 1979 and sold to the marine park industry.
Starting in 1993, the six-ton, 35-foot-long mammal starred in three "Free Willy" movies, a heartwarming box-office franchise from Warner Brothers in which sympathetic humans help set a long-captive killer whale free.
The drive for the real-life reintroduction of the movies' star started after he was found ailing in a Mexico City aquarium. The project -- to reintegrate Keiko with a pod of wild killer whales -- cost more than $20 million and stirred interest and ire worldwide.
Keiko 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 about $500,000 a month. That amount recently paid for a year of care, Phillips said.
Keiko was released from Iceland in July 2002, but he swam straight for Norway on an 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship.
He first turned up near the village of Halsa in late August or early September of 2002. There, he allowed fans to pet and play with him, even crawl on his back, becoming such an attraction that animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him.
Keiko lived in Taknes Bay, a clear, calm pocket of coastal water deep enough that it doesn't freeze in winter. Keepers fed him there, but he was free to roam and did, often at night.
He was equipped with a VHF tracking device that let his four handlers pinpoint his location provided he stayed within a range of about five miles.
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.
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.
Nick Braden, a spokesman of the Humane Society of the United States, said veterinarians gave Keiko antibiotics after he showed signs of lethargy Thursday, 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."
Ah, Quinn. I hate to hear that bit, but at least Willy is free.
I had the same reaction Letty.
I was surprised to find he was 27, I thought he was younger.
Anyway it was a good try and he had a good life I guess...poor fella.
Poor lonely bastard. He didn't know any more about being wild than my dog does.
May he rest in peace. He had an "unnatural" life--but he seemed to enjoy it.
how does one tell ? At least my dog gets this stupid grin.
How did they, uh, dispose of the body?
Does it seem stupid to anybody else that this whale wanted... yearned for... human companionship and was denied that through a ban on approaching him?
I grew up near killer whales (some of the early ones were caught right in front of my house -- Ted Griffith came over for coffee with my mom) and know they are big and scary up close, however... he was like a very intelligent dog. We'd scream animal cruelty if a dog were left alone. It just makes me feel very sad.
farmerman wrote:how does one tell ? At least my dog gets this stupid grin.
How did they, uh, dispose of the body?
perfume...filets...you know, the usual.
Even for you bi-polar that is out of line.
let's see, take a whale that has grown up in captivity......set it free against its will......keep turning it away even though it constantly returns to be with people because it doesn't want to be in the wild alone......finally taking it all the way to Norway.............and it dies....and I'm out of line.....riiiiiiiight......
wasn't speaking to that issue...but fine...just making an observation...peace brother!
Piffka wrote:Does it seem stupid to anybody else that this whale wanted... yearned for... human companionship and was denied that through a ban on approaching him?
I grew up near killer whales (some of the early ones were caught right in front of my house -- Ted Griffith came over for coffee with my mom) and know they are big and scary up close, however... he was like a very intelligent dog. We'd scream animal cruelty if a dog were left alone. It just makes me feel very sad.
I agree. I don't understand why the poor thing was set out to fend for itself in the wild after all these years. It's very sad indeed :-(
They wanted to see if it could be done, I suppose. If he'd made it, the implication for other captive whales would have been huge. Still feel bad for the thing.
It smells like politically correctness gone awry to me. I'll always feel sorrow for Keiko and that feeling didn't start with this news. Maybe calling him Lucky One was tempting fate too much?
Anybody know how many captive whales are still around? Here in the Puget Sound area are two sad cases of orphaned killer whales who won't seem to stick with the pods that seem right for them.
I remember an orphan from last year. Is that one still there, or are there two new ones?
(Snuck into the whale performance area at Marine World one time when they were closed for the day and got a tour from the sympathetic handler. Their orca's name is/was Sunny. Got to toss her some fish. Friendly thing. Utterly devoted to the handler. The captivity is very, very sad, but it was damn hard to imagine Sunny going out and fending for herself. She was already around 30, though, so she'd grown pretty acclimated to her sedate little life.)
Yeah, I used to visit the belugas regularly when I worked at the MN zoo. Tossed 'em fish, pet their tongues. (They like this.) The many analogies to pet dogs are apt, I think. It's sad that they are in captivity, but once they are...
Not that it's sad for dogs to be in captivity, so to speak... and they evolved and everything... so maybe not apt across the board. Guess an adopted wolf cub who was domesticated would work better. Point remains that while there are many instincts that wild animals retain, there is a lot they learn, too, and when those learned behaviors are in the context of humans and NOT in the context of the wild, there isn't that much hope.
I mean, Keiko was in "the wild", but he was taken for "walks", so he would keep in shape, fer crissakes. Not very wild.
Wait, this discussion isn't about Free Willy the gay porn star? Oops. He passed away recently as well. A whale is a freakin' mammal. The dumb humans should have known better.
I had the same reaction as piffka. Thinking of Keiko without social life of either the wild or the human variety for so long... gee, except for "walkies".
patiodog wrote:I remember an orphan from last year. Is that one still there, or are there two new ones?
(Snuck into the whale performance area at Marine World one time when they were closed for the day and got a tour from the sympathetic handler. Their orca's name is/was Sunny. Got to toss her some fish. Friendly thing. Utterly devoted to the handler. The captivity is very, very sad, but it was damn hard to imagine Sunny going out and fending for herself. She was already around 30, though, so she'd grown pretty acclimated to her sedate little life.)
That one orphan plus another. I think if they lose the bond with the mother, then they're sunk. One orphan had formed a loose bond with an "aunt" for a while but I heard that it was off on its own again... near Vancouver Island.
You're right, PD, the captivity is hard, but the loneliness in the ocean seems even more sad. It doesn't seem to work with the old or the young to be reintroduced into a pod.
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