HALSO, Norway (8 Nov 2002) -- From his new home in a tranquil Norwegian bay, Keiko the killer whale has what his friends say is an ideal place to live: peace and quiet, human care and ample opportunity to meet wild orcas. The six-ton orca, who gained fame in the "Free Willy" movies, was led Thursday from the Skaalvik fjord, where he turned up in early September, to the nearby but quieter Taknes Bay. "Here at last," said Colin Baird, 36, Keiko's Canadian trainer. "Welcome to Taknes," Baird said in Norwegian, reading a sign painted by some of the 10 residents who turned out to welcome their new neighbor. They also painted an orca lying on its back. Baird and Norwegian fishery officials spent weeks seeking the perfect winter home for the orca before settling on the bay, which is just six miles away. Baird said the new location is ice-free, has plenty of fish, is along orca migration routes and is more remote – something they hope will reduce crowds of admirers. Keiko's keepers kept the move secret until the last minute, hoping to avoid the publicity that has surrounded Keiko since his arrival in the Scandinavian nation of 4.5 million people. The 35-foot-long orca swam alongside a blue boat stacked with boxes of frozen herring for the 90-minute trip. Occasionally darting beneath the boat, Keiko waved his distinctly curved dorsal fin, responded to hand signals from a trainer and snapped up fish that were thrown to him, often opening his mouth wide to demand more. Keiko's stardom in the three films about a boy who befriends a whale sparked a more than $20 million campaign to rescue the then-ailing orca from a Mexico City aquarium after 23 years in captivity. Keiko was rehabilitated at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998, where he was captured at the age of two. His handlers taught him to catch live fish and released him. He swam straight for Norway – an 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship. | | In the Norwegian fjord, he allowed fans to pet and play with him. some even crawled on his back. He became such an attraction, animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him. "Keiko has had an amazing odyssey," said Paul G. Irwin, president of the Humane Society of the United States, a project backer. "When somebody says this creature can never be released, I say it isn't so. Keiko is free to go. ... He is at liberty to do as he chooses." Authorities in this Scandinavian nation of 4.5 million people also have endorsed the project, as long as Keiko is not penned in or captured, does not come in conflict with other maritime interests and is not commercially exploited. Norway is the only country that commercially hunts whales, but the hunt is limited to minke whales. Killer whales are a protected species. Keiko's trainers, who will live nearby in a house fixed up for them by a local farmer, will lay out buoys to mark his area in the bay, which has a tiny island in the middle. SCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
