Goodbye, Keiko -- Crowds Are Flocking To Newport, Ore., To See The `Free Willy' Star Before He Flies To His New Home In Iceland On Wednesday

NEWPORT, Ore. - Motel manager Ray Kammer has his morning chores down to a routine: check out the departing guests, wash the windows, sweep the parking lot and, of course, change the number on the Keiko sign.

For the past month, the readerboard at the Money Saver Motel on Highway 101 has counted down the days until the departure of Newport's largest - and most famous - resident.

Today, the number drops to 5.

Keiko, five-ton star of the movie "Free Willy" and subject of worldwide attention, affection and controversy, will be flown to Iceland Wednesday on an Air Force cargo plane.

He faces an uncertain future. His handlers say they hope to release him into the wild, but only if they're convinced he can handle it.

Until then, he'll live in a net pen in the sheltered bay of an island six miles off the Icelandic coast, smelling and hearing his native ocean for the first time in nearly two decades.

"We have no fixed timetable for release. Our goal is simply to do the best we can with this animal, and to learn as much as we can in the process," said Jeff Foster, director of field operations and research for the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, which owns the whale.

Logistics of the trip are daunting. Keiko will be lifted in a nylon sling, placed in a steel-and-fiberglass box and loaded on a flatbed United Parcel Service truck for a 3.5-mile ride to the Newport Municipal Airport.

The box will be transferred to a C-17 cargo aircraft for an 8 1/2-hour flight in which ice will be regularly added to Keiko's water to keep it cool. Keiko's 10 trainers will accompany him on the flight, which is being paid for by the foundation and used by the Air Force as a training exercise.

Two in-flight refuelings are planned so the C-17 can make the trip in the shortest possible time. Once in Iceland, Keiko's box will be placed on another truck and taken to a barge, which will carry him to his new pen.

As the countdown to Keiko's departure reaches its final stages, the attention surrounding his move is growing to a crescendo:

-- More than 4,000 Keiko pictures drawn by schoolchildren across the country have arrived at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and are being threaded into a giant paper quilt to be sent to Iceland with Keiko.

-- Attendance at the exhibit, which had been tapering off this year, has jumped as thousands of visitors each day stream into the aquarium for a lingering goodbye, a silent tear or a last admiring gaze at the shiny black-and-white celebrity.

-- A Keiko home page operated by the aquarium, one of several Keiko sites on the Web, is recording up to 3,000 hits an hour.

-- Newport residents and visitors are buying up items to help them remember the whale - Keiko T-shirts, posters, amulets, pencils and cans of Keiko root beer.

-- Businesses in this coastal town, which saw their busiest year in 1996 when Keiko arrived, are bracing for an expected decline.

-- Air Force officials and Keiko's handlers are considering every contingency for the trip, and making arrangements for an emergency stop should Keiko develop problems on the flight.

-- Media attention has been almost nonstop; more than 500 journalists have applied for credentials to cover the whale's journey.

The whale has even attracted the attention of a self-described "animal communicator" who says she has had extensive conversations with Keiko. He told her he doesn't want to leave Newport.

Emotions have been mixed among people pressing close to the windows in Keiko's tank this week, including many making their first and only pilgrimage to the whale's Oregon home.

"My kids have worn out their tape of the movie, and we decided we should see the real thing before he goes," said Katherine Dragoo of Portland, visiting with her husband and three children, ranging in age from 2 to 9. Dragoo's sorry that Keiko's leaving, but hopes the whale can make it in the wild.

While the depth of Keiko's ability to charm and fascinate may be difficult for adults to explain, 10-year-old Naomi Krieck offered this assessment: "He's just so cool."

Naomi, who traveled from the Portland area with her parents and 7-year-old brother, had already decided she wants to be a marine biologist and has filled her room with posters and statues of dolphins and whales.

"My first thought when I heard they would set him free was he won't make it," she said. "But then I heard they were just moving him to a bigger pen for now; I thought that sounds better."

Adults with decades' more experience studying marine mammals have observations and concerns similar to Naomi's.

No killer whale has ever been released after spending this long - nearly his entire life - in captivity. Biologists, environmentalists, animal lovers and aquarium directors are watching every move.

Opinions on when Keiko should be released run the widest possible continuum, from immediately to never. Officials at other marine parks worry that freeing Keiko will increase pressure to free other whales.

"My suggestion has been to get him a mate and keep him happy where he is," said Brad Andrews of Sea World, which has 20 orcas at its four parks. "The bottom line is we don't feel an animal that's been in the care of humans for that length of time is a good candidate for release."

Andrews said harm could come not just to Keiko, but other marine life. He fears a virus that caused skin lesions on Keiko could spread to other whales, possibly even while Keiko remains in the Iceland pen.

Foster, however, said extensive tests have shown Keiko is in good health, and that the foundation will take all possible precautions. "We're not going to do anything to endanger his health or the environment."

For most of the public, what distinguishes Keiko from other killer whales in captivity can be boiled down to two words: "Free Willy."

Or as Los Angeles fifth-grader Luis Suarez said in a letter to Keiko, "I'm going to be sad you're leaving. You are a good star in the movies."

Released in 1993, "Free Willy" was the heartwarming tale of a whale that found his freedom from a greedy marine-circus owner with the help of a young boy.

The actor who played that boy, Jason James Richter, was among Keiko's visitors this week, sharing a quiet moment with his close friend.

But while "Willy" went free in the movie, Keiko remained captive in a cramped pool in a Mexico City park, where the water temperature climbed to 80 degrees and a virus caused the lesions on his skin.

Suggestions poured in from around the world to free the real "Willy." In 1995, the foundation was formed, its initial support from Warner Bros. and New Regency Productions, the movie's producers, and from the McCaw Foundation.

Keiko has become a pet cause of Seattle's Craig McCaw, founder of McCaw Cellular, which was sold to AT&T in 1994 for $11.5 billion.

"It just seemed wrong to me that a story was told with an uplifting end for kids that wasn't true," McCaw said. About six months ago, he actually swam with Keiko. "The experience was a high point of my life," he said. "Being with a creature so powerful and smart is just amazing."

It would be impossible for the foundation to escape criticism, according to Foster, because some animal-rights activists demand that Keiko be freed now, while some marine-park operators doubt he can ever live in the wild again.

"We're in the middle, so we're getting it from both sides," he said.

Foster sees the "Free Willy" movie as a two-edged sword. On one hand, he believes it saved Keiko's life. If Keiko hadn't been a movie star with an international following, it's unlikely any aquarium would have wanted to take him off the hands of the park in Mexico.

"He was in as bad a shape as I've ever seen a marine mammal," Foster said.

On the other hand, the film planted some unrealistic expectations in the public's mind. "In the movie, it was as easy as jumping over a breakwater and swimming into the sunset. In real life, it's not that simple."

For example, since Keiko had been fed frozen fish all his life, he had to gradually be taught that he'd have to chase down live fish for his supper.

Foster said the foundation plans to keep trainers with Keiko indefinitely, with each trainer spending 42 days on duty, then 28 off.

Keiko was born in North Atlantic waters in 1977 or 1978 and was captured in 1979. When Keiko is placed back in the waters, he will likely hear the sounds of other whales; three pods are known to visit the bay in which he'll be located.

Foster acknowledges there are many unknowns and says the foundation will go a step at a time.

For Newport, the unknown is what life without Keiko will bring.

The whale's impact on the aquarium was dramatic. Attendance was 600,000 in 1995 and jumped to 1.3 million with Keiko's arrival.

Phyllis Bell, aquarium director, said the aquarium isn't just going to rely on its jellyfish, otters, leopard sharks and Pacific spiney lumpsuckers to keep the visitors coming.

Instead, it plans to spend $5.4 million on four new exhibits over the next 18 months.

In one, people will walk through a transparent tube that takes them into three separate marine environments, amid eels, octopuses, sharks, turtles, tuna, skates and rays.

The whale's departure is likely to mean fewer guests at area motels, such as the one where Kammer keeps the Keiko countdown.

"I'd say 70 percent of our people have come to see the whale, or at least see it while they're here," Kammer said. "I couldn't guess how many times I've given directions to the aquarium."

At the local chamber of commerce, Director Lisa Noah doesn't see a dire future, noting that "Keiko's only been here since 1996, and Newport's been a vacation destination since the 1800s."

She predicts that after a slight decline, business may bounce back, partly because many more people know about Newport now - thanks to Keiko. "We've had media here from all over the world," she said. "We couldn't have bought that kind of publicity."

Jack Broom's phone message number is 206-464-2222. His e-mail address is: jbroom@seattletimes.com

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. Keiko by the numbers .

. $12,000,000 . Tab for Keiko's rehabilitation .

. $3,000,000 . Cost of Iceland move and pen .

. 2,537,000 . Visitors to Oregon aquarium . since Keiko arrived .

. 741,000 . Hits last month to . "Keiko cam" on Web .

. 172,000 . Pounds a C-17 can carry .

. 60,000 . Pounds Keiko, equipment . and crew weigh .

. 10,000 . Pounds Keiko weighs (est.) .

. 7,720 . Pounds Keiko weighed . on arrival at Newport .

. 5,340 . Miles Keiko will fly to Iceland .

. 1,500 . Pounds of ice to cool Keiko . during flight .

. 546 . Journalists covering . Keiko's trip .

. 117 . Percentage aquarium . attendance rose . in Keiko's first year .

. $59.95 . Cost of Keiko fleece sweat shirt . at aquarium gift shop .

. 43 . Number of Keiko's teeth . (one removed last year) .

. 21 . Keiko's length in feet .

. 20 . Keiko's age .

. 10 . Trainers traveling to Iceland .

. 8.5 . Hours Keiko's flight . to Iceland will take .

. 3.5 . Miles Keiko will be . trucked to airport .

. 3 . "Free Willy" movies made .

. 1 . Movies Keiko was in (animated . and mechanical whales were . used in sequels) .

. $.50 . Cost of can of Keiko Root Beer . at Newport Wal-Mart .

. 0 . Whales previously airlifted . by U.S. Air Force .

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Listen to Keiko

Want to hear Keiko? A brief squeal, which Keiko's handlers call a "vocalization," can be heard by calling The Seattle Times InfoLine from a touch-tone phone, 206-464-2000, and entering category KEIK (5345).

Keiko online

See www.seattletimes.com for links to Keiko-related sites hosted by the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, United Parcel Service, The Discovery Channel Online and a self-described "animal communicator" who says she speaks with Keiko.