Not-So-Free `Willy' Ailing In Mexican Amusement Park

MEXICO CITY - In the final reel of the summer hit movie "Free Willy," a 7,000-pound killer whale befriended by a young boy is rescued from his cramped tank in a nasty amusement park and swims to freedom in the open ocean.

The killer whale who played Willy doesn't have it so good.

In a classic Hollywood melding of fantasy and reality, Keiko, the 13-year-old orca who starred in the film, is living in a Mexico City amusement park in a plight not unlike that of the killer whale he portrayed.

So far, an unusual alliance of movie types, scientists, animal-rights activists and fans haven't been able to figure out a happy ending for Keiko.

He's in a tank too small and too warm for him and, say marine-mammal experts, won't survive where he is. He's suffering from a skin disease exacerbated by the tepid water, and experts worldwide fear for his health.

But while the animal lovers who produced "Free Willy" are spending many thousands of dollars trying to find Keiko a new home, the very aquarists who adore him won't invite him to live in their tanks. They fear his skin problem could spread to other sea animals they own.

"The reality is, the whale will not survive where he is. Somebody's going to have to change that or just let him die," said Ken Balcomb, a research biologist with the Center for Whale Research in the San Juan Islands, who has investigated Keiko's condition on behalf of the movie's producers, Lauren Shuler-Donner and Richard Donner.

"He certainly has a lot of publicity right now, but what happens next year when the movie is history? Who's going to pay to move sick Keiko?"

Ponying up $200,000

Leaders of marine parks and aquariums around the United States have met to try to find a place for the ailing killer whale who delights children. Warner Bros. Inc., which distributed "Free Willy," has laid out more than $200,000 for veterinary studies of Keiko. Other Hollywood business people are trying to set up a nonprofit organization to take donations to build him a new tank, which could cost $12 million. Animal-rights groups that have demonstrated outside aquariums owning killer whales since the movie came out want to set Keiko as free as Willy. And thousands of children and adults have written to the studio asking what they can do to help.

So far, Keiko's friends are stumped.

That leaves the 21-foot-long orca straining to swim in a pool that's only 22 feet deep, 65 feet wide and 114 feet long. Experts say Keiko could grow an additional 9 feet or so in length. The water in the tank is not refrigerated and sometimes rises to 70 degrees in the hot Mexico sun, uncomfortable for a killer whale built for 50-degree ocean waters and a perfect environment for his fungus-like skin problem, papilloma, to grow. The combination, marine-mammal experts say, could eventually be deadly for Keiko.

"We're not trying to make anybody out to be a bad guy - Keiko is obviously very loved and given a lot of attention where he is," said Mary O'Herron, a spokeswoman at Marine World Africa U.S.A. in Vallejo, Calif., which has been following Keiko's travails.

"It just got out of hand. It shouldn't have been allowed to happen if they'd had proper maintenance facilities."

While U.S. marine-mammal experts agree Keiko is in a substandard tank and his trainers and doctors acknowledge privately he's outgrowing his home at El Nuevo Reino Aventura ("The New Adventure Kingdom"), park officials insist there's nothing wrong with their facilities. Keiko's problem, they say, is his nerves.

What teenage Keiko needs, they say, is a girlfriend and nothing more. They say they are willing to give him free to any aquarium with a female orca and a tank built for two.

"His skin problem, it was maybe the result of the stress of being captured, or he could have been born with it," said Ricardo Contreras, director of operations at El Nuevo Reino Aventura. "What he needs is a girlfriend. He needs company. We love that whale, but we're trying to find him a companion."

Whatever the reasons they cite, everyone agrees Keiko needs to be moved. With only 21 orcas in captivity in North America, interest in the well-being of each one is keen.

Animal-rights groups and some marine-mammal experts say he should be freed to live again as a wild animal with his family. But Keiko has spent nearly all his life in captivity, since he was captured at age 2 off the coast of Iceland. He was sold to Marineland in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and resold to the Mexico City park in 1985. Most marine-mammal experts say he would never survive in the open ocean. No killer whale has ever been returned to the ocean after so many years in captivity, and giving Keiko even a fighting chance would require finding his family.

A star by chance

World attention became focused on Keiko almost by accident. Last year, after an 18-month search for an orca to use in their film, the producers of "Free Willy" chose Keiko. He got the job, said a Warner Bros. spokeswoman, partly because of his bent dorsal fin, which gives him a forlorn appearance. He also got the starring role because of his gentle personality, the spokeswoman said, and because he was unemployed at the time, while the amusement park was being renovated.

It was during the filming at the park that the producers became concerned about his health and decided to see if something could be done.

While the experts dispute his fate and aquarium owners wring their hands about where Keiko is to go, he shows up for his job every day.

He jumps and flips and swims around his small tank with a woman in a wet suit on his back three times a day. He lets his trainer put his head in his mouth. He smacks his fin hard against the water, spraying an admiring audience.

And at the end of every show Keiko picks out a pretty girl in the stands, lifts his massive, silky snout out of the water and, in the best tradition of a hard-working orca, gives her a kiss.