KEIKO, the killer whale who starred in the Free Willy films, is
about to go home鈥攂ut probably not to freedom.
Keiko was captured off the coast of Iceland in 1979 and taken to the US.
Before and after his film career in the early 1990s, he lived at the Reino
Aventura amusement park in Mexico City. But reports that his tank was too small
and warm, and that he was ill, led to a public outcry. In 1996 the Free Willy
Keiko Foundation, set up partly with funds from the films鈥� producer, Warner
Brothers, moved the whale to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.
In 1992 Iceland stated that it would not house any captive killer
whales鈥攔efusing one from Sea World in California that year鈥攂ecause
they might carry infections that could harm native fish or marine mammals. But
last week, after months of pressure from the foundation, Icelandic Prime
Minister David Oddsson announced that Keiko, who is now healthy, can come back.
Gisli Jonsson of the State Veterinary Office in Reykjavik says: 鈥淭his is the
most studied animal in history. He has been tested for over 50 viruses. We can
find nothing that would prevent import.鈥�
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The foundation hopes that the move to Iceland will be the last step before
Keiko鈥檚 release. The Icelandic government is building a floating pen for him in
Reykjavik, and after a few years there officials will decide whether the whale
is fit enough to be set free.
But scientists doubt that Keiko would survive freedom. Although he could live
for another twenty years, attempts to teach him to fish have had little success,
and there are doubts that he can re-establish a natural social life. 鈥淭his whale
has been in captivity a long time,鈥� says Johann Sigurjonsson of the Marine
Research Institute in Reykjavik. 鈥淗e is unlikely to relate to his kin any more.鈥�