Haha!:24:
Yup, I was right, this is what happened to the real free willy
Keiko, star of 'Free Willy' movies, dies in Norway
Sudden onset of pneumonia kills famous orca
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
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 today.
The whale, which was 27, died yesterday afternoon after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord. He was old for an orca in captivity, although wild adult orcas 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, 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 6-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 the orca 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 and airlifted to Iceland in 1998, where handlers prepared it for the wild, teaching the orca 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 swam straight for Norway on an 870-mile trek that seemed to be a search for human companionship.
The whale first turned up near the village of Halsa in late August or early September of 2002. There, Keiko allowed fans to pet and play with him, even crawl on his back. Keiko became such an attraction that animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him.
Seattle-area orca observers say Keiko's story not only raised public awareness internationally about the plight of whales held captive, but enlightened many about the fragile ecosystems in which whales live.
Further, they said, Keiko's attempted reintroduction taught lessons that could benefit Luna, the orca that has been living in Nootka Sound along the west coast of Vancouver Island, since it became separated from its pod more than two years ago.
Fred Felleman, a board member for the Orca Conversancy, said that Keiko "was an ambassador for whales when it arrived. It was a major, heroic effort that needs to be measured in more than whether he found his family."
Felleman noted that after 23 years in captivity, scientists had no real idea where Keiko's family was when he was reintroduced -- unlike the case of Luna, where they have tracked the movements of the whale's immediate family.
In late October, Canadian officials said they will match money pledged by the U.S. government to reunite Luna with its family, but that the move will be delayed until spring.
In the end, those who assisted Keiko should be proud of their efforts, Felleman said. "He did get five years of freedom that no other whale in his circumstances has been afforded," he said.
Keiko lived in Norway's Taknes Bay. Keepers fed him, but he was free to roam and did, often at night. Keiko was equipped with a VHF tracking device that let handlers pinpoint its location provided the orcas stayed within 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, caretakers took the whale on "walks," leading it around the fjords from a small boat at least three times a week.
Nick Braden, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States, said veterinarians gave Keiko antibiotics Thursday after the orca showed signs of lethargy, but it wasn't apparent how sick the animal was.
"They really do die quickly, and there was nothing we could do," he said.
"It's a really sad moment for us, but we do believe we gave him a chance to be in the wild."
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/152384_keiko13.html
