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Keiko Beached Himself and Died of Pneumonia on December 12th, 2003 in Taknes Bay, Norway. For Keiko, home was in the cold waters of Iceland, also home to hundreds of other killer whales. It was there in the late 1970's, a two-year-old orca named Keiko was captured as his pod in Iceland followed fishing trawlers for the creatures that fell from the nets and boats. Unfortunately for Keiko, the captain of one particular trawler had been offered a substantial sum of money to capture a young Orca and Keiko unfortunately was the perfect subject. At two year of age , the bonds between him and his mother as the rest of his family, were severed when they should have remained at their strongest. But, it was at this young age that Keiko was separated from his family .............forever. The young whale, having survived the capture, was now an extremely valuable commodity. Young whales are renowned for being docile and easy to train. Keiko was transported to Marineland in Ontario, Canada where many young Orcas are trained for sale. Being the youngest out of 5 other whales in his tank, Keiko was bullied by the others, this caused himto become timid, and also less marketable, and so he remained in Ontario for the next five years. Eventually, Marineland was approached by a park in Mexico City and Keiko was sold to Reino Aventura for $500,000 usd. Here he shared a tank with 2 dolphins, and was looked after by two devoted trainers. The spectacle of such an exotic animal performing in the middle of Mexico drew huge crowds, and Keiko quickly became the star attraction. He was to remain at Reino Aventura for the next 15 years. For the script of 'Free Willy', the story of a grumpy whale, living in a seedy amusement park, who befriends a homeless boy and is eventually freed. Warner Brothers required a lone orca, living in a fairly basic tank which had a holding tank that Warner Brothers could use. Keiko was the only whale who fitted the description, and so his life as a celebrity began. When the filming of 'Free Willy' ended, nobody thought Keiko should be left where he was. His tank was too small (16 ft deep), he couldn't even get vertical in the water, which was too warm and too chlorinated, and he was suffering from a pappiloma virus that caused lesions on the area around his pectoral fins and tail flukes. The producers of 'Free Willy' realized that something had to be done. By now the public had heard about Keiko's problems and the growing public concern was demanding that something should be done about it - that Keiko should be freed and placed back with his family, from whom he had been kidnapped 17 years earlier.
Soon the Free Willy - Keiko Foundation was born, and Keiko was donated to the Foundation by Reino Aventura, even though he was a source of substantial income for the park, and a huge attraction. Then a site for Keiko's rehabilitation pool had to be found. One criteria was that it had to be near the sea, it all came down to just the one site that fitted the criteria, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in the US. Here, they emphasized rehabilitation and release rather than performance, and soon work began on Keiko's new home. It took 11 months for Keiko's home to be built, and during those 11 months Keiko's removal became a matter of urgency. Blood tests revealed a much-weakened immune system, and while the Aquarium's new pool was being built,Keiko's health got even worse. A delay at this point could mean that Keiko might not survive the move to Oregon. A few days before Keiko was due to be moved, UPS, who had donated a plane to transport Keiko to Oregon, announced that they had to take off by 4am, when everything in Mexico City was rigged for 7am. After much negotiation, a compromise was reached and Keiko was to be in the air at 5am or not at all. January 1996, Keiko began his journey to freedom. Keiko knew something was up-even though his sling had been incorporated into his training for months previously, he evaded the nets twice before eventually going into the medical pool. About half an hour behind schedule, Keiko left Reino Aventura early in the morning. A secret route had been devised by the authorities, but nobody was prepared to the massive crowds waiting outside the gates of Reino Aventura to say goodbye to their favourite whale. When Keiko was being loaded into the plane that was to transport the orca from Mexico City to Oregon, disaster struck. One of the rollers being used to roll Keiko's transportation tank in the plane became jammed, and things looked pretty bad for Keiko. But 2 hours later the roller was unjammed and Keiko was back on course to Oregon. When the plane landed in Oregon, and Keiko was being driven to the Aquarium, crowds lined the streets to welcome the new arrival. They chanted Keiko's name and held banners to welcome the famous whale. Later that night, however, the happy atmosphere became decidedly subdued as the final phase of Stage 1 of Keiko's journey home started. Keiko had to be lifted by crane, high into the air, to a height from which he could not survive a fall, to be placed in his new tank. He remained calm until that last few feet, just as he was being lowered into the water, but he made it, and was back in his natural element. 2 years at Oregon Coast Aquarium, free from the stress of performing, worked wonders for Keiko both mentally and physically. His pappiloma virus virtually disappeared and his immune system became alot stronger. He was also alot healthier; when Keiko arrived he could only lift half of his body out of the water; now he can lift his entire body out of the water and create massive splashes. He also spyhops - an activity he previously couldn't accomplish because he couldn't get his 20 ft body vertical in the 16 ft deep pool in Mexico and , most interestingly, has begun to vocalise, something rarely heard from orcas in captivity. Mentally, every day Keiko took part in stimulating training exercises that made him use that huge brain of his. He had been trained to pick out shapes, and various other activities which would help him when he is released. After 2 years, however, things started to happen once again. There were rumours of conflicts between the Free-Willy Foundation, who own Keiko, and staff at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, about Keiko's health and training. There were even rumours that the OCA would prefer Keiko not to be released, since he was such a crowd pleaser. In the midst of all these rumours, however, came some very, very, good news! Keiko had been examined by several vets and had been given a clean bill of health, and with this clean bill put in front of them, the Icelandic Government gave the thumbs up to Keiko returning to Iceland. Keiko was going home... Within a few weeks of the announcement, parts of the sea pen which was to be Keiko's third home were already being flown out to Iceland. The location a large bay near the town of Vestmannaeyjar, in the Westman Islands. It was a very deep bay and is on the migration route of Iceland's orca pods. The sea pen to be constructed was a massive structure - larger than Keiko's pool in Oregon. Keiko would be moved either in September 1998 or Spring 1999. In the end, it would come to September, when Keiko would once again be airlifted to a new home.
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September 9th - moving day dawned, and everyone was getting ready to go and it wasn't just Keiko moving, but 30 staff members from the Oregon Coast Aquarium would travel with the 5 ton orca to Iceland, where they would work on a rotation system (four weeks in Iceland before returning to the US, and then coming back for another 4 weeks) a very demanding schedule. At 3pm PST, as thousands watched on TV and across the Internet, Keiko was called into his medical pool for the last time. From his medical pool, Keiko was put into his sling, and lifted by crane into a container half-filled with ice and water. He was driven to the airport, and loaded into the plane, which was of the only type able to make the long journey across the Atlantic, with such a weight onboard, without having to make a stop for refueling. The plane traveled overnight across the Atlantic ocean, bound for the Westman Islands simple and small airport. People were able to watch the entire journey, through a live stream RealVideo broadcast. When the plane finally touched down on Wednesday morning, the weight of Keiko helped to break the plane's landing gear. It remained in Vestmannaeyjar for over a week and the airport was closed until the crippled plane was moved, with reports of over $1,000,000 worth of damage. Meanwhile, at 9am in Iceland, Keiko was once again lifted from his container, into his new sea-pen. He gave a few joyous flicks of his tail before disappearing under the water to explore. A year after Keiko's move to Iceland, the next stage in his rehabilitation was being planned - letting him have the entire of Klettsvik Bay. A design was submitted, and soon construction was underway to build a net that would stretch across the entrance to the bay - 925 feet in wide. The net was secured with several anchors holding the net to the sea bottom, and also several 10 ton weights that had been drilled into the mountains that protect the bay entrance. However, there were problems...the day Keiko was due to be released into the bay, a violent winter storm damaged the nets enclosing the bay, and this happened again a couple of days later. However, problems were soon solved, and on March 3rd, 2000 Keiko was allowed to roam freely in the bay. At first, he seemed slightly bemused by it all, and preferred to return to the comfort and familiarity of his sea-pen. He was able to communicate with other marine animals, and chase the fish that inhabit the bay, which was 20 times the size of his sea-pen. Now back in Iceland, Keiko was more active than ever. He made attempts to communicate with creatures outside his pen, and behaved more like a wild whale. He spent less time at the surface, coming up only to take a deep breath, before disappearing under the sea to explore. With the news that there was to be dynamite excavation in Klettsvik Bay, Iceland - the noise of which could do serious damage to Keiko's health - the next phase of Keiko's rehabilitation was pushed forward. He was fitted with a tracking device on his dorsal fin, and taken on the ocean walks that he had been training for during his time in the bay. At first, Keiko stuck close to the boat, doing exactly as his trainers told him. But as he grew more confident, he strayed further and further from the boat, with some of the walks lasting days at a time. He even interacted with some of the wild orcas around Iceland. But one ocean walk lasted longer than the rest. His trainers tracked Keiko through his tracking device, assuming he was with other whales, until he went out of range...turning up 900 miles away, alone in a Norwegian fjord. He was a huge hit with the locals, even allowing children to ride on his back until his care team arrived in Norway and put controls in place, both for safety (for Keiko and the public) and to prevent all the good work of the past few years being undone. Keiko was later moved to nearby Taknes fjord for the winter, because it doesn't freeze over. There he enjoyed the freedom of being able to come and go as he pleased, as well as the excellent care of his trainers, until his sudden death from pneumonia that came on December 12th, 2003. R.I.P. Keiko...
Keiko News... Norway Website Ocean Future's
Society - Jean-Michel Cousteau Keiko Buried
in Secret Ceremony - CNN (Dec. 2003):
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