-Caveat Lector- Euphorian spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site and thought you should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site, go to http://www.observer.co.uk Keiko's love of children puts his life in danger The film star whale's frolics with fans have exhausted him and there are fears for his life Mark Townsend in Skaalvik Fjord, Norway Saturday September 07 2002 The Guardian A dark shape bobbed on the surface of the water as the sun slipped behind the Blue Mountains in Norway last night. Then the object moved, twitching its tail and sending water into the sky. On the shore, men, women and children cheered. Keiko, the world's most famous killer whale, was alive. But for how long? In the latest chapter of an extraordinary story, the 33ft orca has made a remote Norwegian fjord into what could prove his final resting place after a journey involving thousands of miles, endless controversy and a taste of Hollywood stardom in the 1993 hit film, Free Willy. Keiko, who has spent all but two of his 24 years in captivity, arrived in Skaalvik Fjord last week, frolicking in waters surrounded by jagged mountain peaks. By yesterday he was less energetic, prompting fears that the latest attempt to reintroduce him to the wild would end in his death. 'He is very listless,' said Colin Baird, the Icelander in charge, as the mammal lay motionless in the water. 'It is all very depressing. He will start wasting away soon.' Keiko has redeveloped a 'captive mentality' after people started swimming with him last week. The threat to his welfare forced the Norwegian government to announce an unprecedented emergency ruling yesterday that made it an offence to swim within 25 yards of Keiko or to feed him. Ministers feared a public relations disaster if the health of the world's most famous sea creature declined in waters where it is legal to kill whales. As concern over Keiko's health mounted throughout the day, it emerged that the actress Brigitte Bardot was urging Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit to intervene to ensure the whale was removed from contact with people, who have caused him problems for much of his life. Since slipping into this narrow fjord after almost 70 days in the wild, Keiko has again been revelling in human contact, unravelling the biggest attempt to rehabilitate a creature into the wild. So far, it has cost £13 million. The fears over his health - the whale has stopped feeding because he apparently believes people will provide him with fish - come 24 years after Keiko was captured by a trawler off the Icelandic coast in 1978. He had a brief career on show in aquariums in Iceland and Canada before going to an amusement park in Mexico City. There he stayed, without contact with any other member of his species, for 11 years in unsuitably warm water that was only 12ft deep and at an altitude of 7,000ft. Keiko's health deteriorated and lesions covered his skin. After his appearance in Free Willy, the story of a boy fighting to liberate a whale from an aquarium where he was exploited by unscrupulous showmen, more than a million people wrote to demand that Keiko be set free. A huge global fundraising campaign was set up. Eventually, in 1998, he was flown to Iceland's Westman Islands in a United States Air Force transporter plane at a cost of £1.6m. There, efforts began to reintroduce him to the wild. After more than 60 unsuccessful attempts to reunite Keiko with free orcas, many people began to doubt whether he would forsake the company of humans for the call of freedom. Seven weeks ago, however, Keiko finally disappeared from his ocean pen, the size of a football pitch, and joined a pod of wild orcas. They embarked on a 1,000-mile journey across the Atlantic. Tracking devices reveal that Keiko dived to depths greater than 150ft in pursuit of food such as herring. His apparently successful integration into the open sea went wrong when he saw a fishing vessel off the Norwegian coast and followed it into Skaalvik Fjord. Within hours, Keiko had befriended groups of children playing in the water, and within days crowds of them were swimming alongside the killer whale, whose species are seen as fearsome predators in the wild. Some even climbed on his back for free rides. This triggered fierce criticism from conservationists, who claimed the children's parents were 'irresponsible'. Mark Berman, assistant director of the Free Willy/Keiko fund, said: 'This is a 12,000lb whale. Would they let their kids ride on the back of a brown bear in Yosemite National Park? 'Someone could have got hurt. Keiko doesn't know his own strength. These people are making a big mistake.' Contact with humans has already made the whale losing its hunting instincts. Yesterday Baird, his keeper, revealed that plans are under discussion to move Keiko so that his rehabilitation can continue at a secret location in Norway, far away from the human adulation the whale craves. Experts point to another potential danger. Winter is approaching and Skaalvik is only 80 miles from the Arctic Circle, so fears are mounting that Keiko could be held captive again - this time by ice - as the surface water of the fjord freezes in the coming weeks. One Norwegian whale expert has already warned that Keiko has little chance of surviving the winter in the cold western fjords of Norway, and might have to be shot. At 24, Keiko has already outlived the average captive whales, and is nearing the 30-year life expectancy for male wild orcas. While holidaymakers have started arriving in the fjord to see the celebrity mammal, some local people were yesterday less sympathetic, saying the whale is a nuisance because he disturbs the local salmon. 'He must go away,' said Tormed Venvik, a fisherman. 'We need to clean this mess up.' There are fears that someone might even try to shoot Keiko. Whatever happens, few people crowding the shores of the fjord last night believed that they would witness a repetition of the ending of Free Willy, when Keiko leaps over a breakwater and disappears into the ocean. Scenes from the life of a star of the seas 1979 Keiko born in Atlantic off Iceland. 1978 Captured by commercial trawler and kept in an Icelandic aquarium. 1982 Transported to MarineLand in Ontario, Canada. Develops skin lesions. 1985 Sold to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, for £270,000. Kept in poor conditions. 1993 Makes screen debut in Free Willy - followed by revelations that Keiko is ill because of confinement. Outcry prompts film-makers Warner Bros to look for a better home for him. 1994 Free Willy Keiko Foundation formed with around £2.7m with the aim of returning him to wild. 1996 Keiko finally arrives at a new £4.5m custom-built tank in Newport, Oregon, where he experiences seawater for the first time in 14 years. 1997 Learns to hunt and eats live fish. 1998 Flown by US transporter plane to a special sea pen in Iceland. 2002 Finally freed, he swims 1,000 miles to Skaalvik fjord in Norway. Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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