Free Willy Star Dies

Awww . Saw this on AOL earlier today. Sad story.

http://aolsvc.news.search.aol.com/news/redir?src=news&clickedItemURN=http%3A%2F%2Faolsvc.news.aol.com%2Fincoming.adp%3Fpid%3D164%26type%3Darticle%26id%3D20031213091109990004

I don't have AOL, did the whale from Free Willy die or was it an actor from the movie?

The Whale .

That is going to make a lot of sushi.

Lcp88:

I heard the news this morning. They took him to Norway to die. Whales are such awesome creatures.

http://images.allposters.com/images/BRE/1394_a.jpg

PS - Did you see the movie - "The Whalerider" ? It was wonderful! It's a "must see" for all Whale Watchers.

Farewell Keiko

Uh...actually, he wasn't taken to Norway to die or live out his natural life.

Keiko was trained to live in the wild after the free willy campaigns. They taught him how to catch live fish instead of waiting for them to be tossed to him. He was released into the ocean near Iceland in the hopes that he would join a pod. Not sure if even tried to join the other killer whales or if he just wanted people. He ended up in Norway and was so friendly to people that they could touch him. Eventually, the authorities banned people from touching and feeding him in the hopes that he would try to be 'free'. He stayed in the fjord and learned how to breach the waters like a natural killer whale. Several times a week, a boat would be taken to lead him further out just to excercise him.

I think it was a semi-successful effort at releasing a tamed animal back into its natural habitat.

Heyang:

Here is the article:

Keiko, killer whale of Free Willy fame, buried in secret ceremony in Norway
DOUG MELLGREN
Canadian Press

Monday, December 15, 2003
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OSLO, Norway (AP) - Keiko, the killer whale star of the Free Willy movies, was buried Monday in a snow-bound pasture during the deep darkness of Nordic winter in a ceremony kept secret from the public.

"We wanted to let him be at peace," said Dane Richards, one of his caretakers. "He's free now and in the wild."

The roughly six-tonne whale died Friday in a Norwegian bay where his team was trying to reintroduce him to the wild. His trainers said the likely cause of death was pneumonia.

Richards said the burial in a pasture just metres from where Keiko, about 26, died was done in secret to avoid a media circus.

Despite the whale's size, the burial went smoothly, Richards said. Machines dug a hole near the waterline, under cover of darkness, and then slid Keiko slowly a few metres across the snow into his grave, he said.

"It was beautiful. He went to the grave quietly, quickly and peacefully, just like he died," said Richards. Only seven people - including his team and the machine operator - were present.

Keiko, which mean's "Lucky One" in Japanese, became a darling of children through his stardom in Free Willy, a film in which a young boy befriends a captive killer whale and coaxes him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom.

The fame prompted a $20-million-US program to free Keiko from a Mexico city aquarium where he was languishing.

He was brought to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996, then to Iceland, near where he was born in 1977 or 1978, for preparation for his return to the wild. When he was released in 2002, he swam 1,400 kilometres to the waters near the village of Halsa, on Norway's west coast.

He became an instant hit, with so many people swimming with him and even crawling on his back, that animal protection authorities imposed a ban on approaching him.

His team coaxed him to the more remote Taknes bay, still in Halsa, where they tried to coax him into a life completely in the wild. He was free to leave the bay, and sometimes did, but appeared to prefer human company.

The grave site, a lush and grassy field during the summer, was covered with snow and barely visible by daylight Monday.

Normally, Norwegian fisheries authorities would order the remains of a large sea mammal towed to sea and sunk in deep water. However, they acted quickly during the weekend to give Keiko's backers, which included the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation and the Human Society of the United States, permission to bury the celebrity on land.

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On the Net:

Keiko: aquarium.org/keiko/index.htm
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press