AR-News: Keiko remains under human care in Norway

[jim robertson]

Keiko remains under human care in Norway

By Winston Ross
The Register-Guard



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FLORENCE - A year after his impressive 900-mile swim from Iceland to Norway, 
Keiko the killer whale remains in a fjord there, still dependent on his 
human caretakers.

Keiko's trainers have been hoping that a pod of killer whales would enter 
Taknes Bay, where the star of three "Free Willy" movies has been living 
since he showed up unannounced last September. The 33-foot orca might then 
join them in their migration.






.
Norwegian fans admire Keiko the killer whale in September 2002. He was 
rescued from a Mexico park in 1996 and rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast 
Aquarium in Newport. He was airlifted to Iceland in 1998.

Photo: Associated Press






But that hasn't happened, says Mark Berman, assistant director of the Free 
Willy Keiko Foundation.

"We're still waiting for wild orcas to come around," Berman said. "That 
should be happening hopefully within the next couple of months, when they 
start running with the herring again."

Perhaps because of El Niño, the herring didn't swim into Taknes Bay last 
season, which meant wild whales didn't follow.

Meanwhile, anywhere from 200 to 400 fans continue to flock to Norway each 
day, despite a 24-hour watch from Keiko's keepers and orange ropes with "no 
access" signs along the shore.

So the 26-year-old whale's trainers will wait, and the foundation will 
continue to defend against critics who claim that the $20 million project is 
a waste of money and no benefit to the movie star whale.

"It's certainly a misguided and wasteful exercise," said Fred Jacobs, a 
spokesman for SeaWorld Adventure Parks, which houses many captive killer 
whales. Since Keiko spent most of his life in captivity, he doesn't know 
enough to survive as a wild whale, Jacobs said, nor does he seem to want to 
abandon human care.

"The idea of reteaching him the instincts and skills required to succeed in 
the wild is naive," Jacobs said. "The fact that so much money has been spent 
on this is shameful."

Berman disagrees, and he especially opposes a proposal from the Miami 
Seaquarium last year to recapture and exhibit Keiko. Whether he's with a pod 
or not, he's in excellent health, Berman says, and he's free.

"He's not in a tank. He's not forced to do anything such as the ridiculous 
tricks you find at Sea World," Berman said. "He's a free whale."

It riles Berman that critics think the whale should be in captivity.

"They want a cash cow," said Berman of the Seaquarium. "Keiko going back 
into a tank would probably kill him. These whales belong in the ocean."

No one knows why Keiko decided to leave the pod he traveled with from 
Iceland to Norway last year. But trainers have a skiff he likes to follow 
and will lead him to the next group of orcas that come along.

"They could show up at any time," Berman said. "The public is going to see 
that dolphins and whales deserve freedom. "

The Associated Press contributed to this report.




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In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be 
cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the 
name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are 
at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.
-- Ruth Harrison, author of Animal Machines

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