Keiko Goes Home -- Movie-Star Whale Dining On Fish And Talking To Dolphins

Within hours of being released this morning into his native waters off the coast of Iceland, Keiko the killer whale was gobbling fish and delighting his handlers by communicating with a dolphin swimming nearby.

Word of the dolphin was announced during the final minutes of an on-shore press briefing after a phone call came from the director of field operations for Keiko's move, who was with Keiko at the orca's new home - a custom-built, floating sea pen in a protected cove in the remote fishing village of Heimaey.

Those closely involved with the $12 million Keiko project were visibly emotional during the briefing, particularly Lanny Cornell, Keiko's veterinarian.

Craig McCaw, chairman of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, which owns Keiko and financed his rehabilitation and move, described Cornell as "a stubborn man who took on a project that at the time seemed unlikely to us."

"It was our hope, our dream," Cornell said. "Keiko climbed into his new surroundings and ate immediately. As a veterinarian . . . it can't get any better."

McCaw, responding to criticism by some that the Keiko project has been excessively expensive and misguided, said today: "I had my doubts, of course. But they were all answered when I saw him go into the pool.

"Is it a feel-good effort? If keeping your word to children is feel-good, then certainly it is."

Star of the movie "Free Willy," Keiko was unleashed from a giant sling after a nine-hour flight from Newport, Ore., aboard a U.S. Air Force cargo plane. The plane touched down safely in Heimaey at 3 a.m. Seattle time.

Until his handlers are convinced he would be able to thrive if released, he is being kept in the cove in the huge, mesh pen. There is no way for spectators to get close to Keiko now, though there is talk of building a viewing platform several hundred yards from his pen.

His arrival in Iceland marked the culmination of a final stage of a grand experiment - the first attempted return of a killer whale to the wild after nearly a lifetime of captivity. Born in 1977 or '78, Keiko has been under human supervision for 95 percent of his life, most recently at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport which put him on the plane home last night.

"Keiko did great the whole time," said Bob Ratliffe, executive vice president of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.

"His respiratory rate stayed right where it was supposed to be. He certainly knows he's being moved. But whether he has a sense he's home now, I don't know."

In the stark but tidy town of Heimaey, population 4,600, several hundred spectators gathered on a hillside on this clear but cold and blustery morning, waiting for Keiko's arrival.

The enormous, Boeing-built C-17 carrying Keiko tilted dramatically against crosswinds before touching down on a short runway. Still floating in a transport box, Keiko then was lifted onto a flatbed truck and transported slowly to the waterfront, where the box was loaded onto a barge that took him to sea.

To prepare him for release, the trainers have had to teach Keiko basic survival skills, such as chasing live fish - a skill he never needed in the years of being fed frozen fish. They are prepared that he may live out his life in the floating pen.

A team of 10 handlers has moved to Iceland with Keiko and will remain as long as Keiko is living in the pen or released into the wild.

Keiko's long journey home has attracted worldwide interest.

Born in the North Atlantic waters off Iceland, Keiko was captured in 1979 and eventually sold to Reino Aventura, a Mexico City amusement park, where he languished, ill, in a cramped tank. His fame grew after starring in "Free Willy," a movie about a captured killer whale, which brought attention to his own, sad plight.

In 1996, Keiko was transferred to the aquarium in Newport for better care, drawing more than 2.5 million visitors there from around the world.

His safe arrival in Iceland this morning capped a day that began in Newport yesterday as normally as his handlers could make it.

They played and swam with him as usual. Though he was aware of the increased activity around him, they said, he was calm and content.

The carefully orchestrated journey began at 1 p.m., when the trainers asked Keiko to swim into a small side pool and then maneuvered him into a giant sling that had special cutouts for his fins.

Keiko and the sling then were lowered into a pen of water. It was placed on a flatbed truck and taken to the airport for the 5,340-mile flight.

"He's going to be in it for a long time," a foundation spokeswoman said of the customized sling. "They want to be sure he's comfortable."

Arrival spawns tourism

Though the setting is distant, Keiko's arrival in Heimaey has already spawned at least some tourism.

Steinar Gudlaugsson, his 8-year-old daughter by his side, decided at the last minute to make the trip from Reykjavik. "It's once in a lifetime," I guess," Gudlaugsson said.

And just as Keiko's presence in Newport resulted in countless Keiko souvenirs and memorabilia, Keiko kitsch is also visible here now in Heimaey, where youngsters were let out early from school today to observe Keiko's homecoming. The children - hearty, blond, blue-eyed and pink-faced like much of the rest of the townspeople - could be seen yanking impatient mothers toward storefront displays with longing in their eyes.

At Galleri Heimalist, shelves are flush with orca gift items ranging from bite-size clay Keikos and necklaces to wool sweaters and headbands.

It was all very exciting for store manager Margo Renner, but the latest item was the last straw - a compact disc called "Keiko - Homeward Bound," by four young girls calling themselves Svart og Hvitt, or "Black and White."

"This is the breaking point," said Renner, a transplant from Milwaukee. "It's a repeat of the same phrase, over and over again: `Keiko, you're coming home. Keiko, come visit me.' I don't know. Whatever."

Happy with the limelight

Just the same, most seem happy with the attention the famous orca is bringing to the town, which has not seen this kind of limelight since much of it was buried under lava in a 1973 volcanic eruption on the island.

"Compared to that, this is something we can cope with," said Silla Sigmarsdottir of Samvinn Travel, the agency handling travel arrangements for the move.

The agency persuaded about 50 families to rent out space in their homes to the members of the media and others linked to the event.

As townspeople and tourists welcomed Keiko to Heimaey today, in Newport yesterday it was a time for goodbyes.

As he was being hoisted from his Newport pool, Keiko made an orca squeal that sounded something like this: "weeka weeka, ha hum squeek."

High and plaintive, it brought tears to many who heard it.

"I almost cried," said Louisa Kosel, a biology student from the University of Memphis. "To me, it seemed like he was saying, `Goodbye. I'm finally going home.' "

Another who heard him thought he might be crying. Still another thought he was saying: "What are you doing to me?"

Once he was maneuvered into the sling, Keiko was rubbed down with a white moisturizing balm that would help keep his exposed skin moist during the flight to Iceland.

He then was gingerly lowered into a waiting tank that resembled a giant bathtub holding about three feet of water. Once Keiko was in it, ice was packed in around him to keep him cool.

So little water was used because water is heavy and sloshes around during travel, which could increase Keiko's chance of injury.

"Just think what would happen if you had an aquarium in the back of your car and you put on the brakes," said Scot Wagner, president of Fibertek, the company that made the tank.

A dozen of Keiko's trainers rode with him as he was pulled by a United Parcel Service (UPS) truck down three miles of Oregon's Highway 101, which had been closed for the occasion, to Newport Municipal Airport, where the Air Force C-17 was waiting.

Escorts along for the ride

Some remained with him, actually in the tank, during the whole move, others rode on the edge of the tank during the convoy and hopped off at the airport.

The entire procedure took more than five hours and was witnessed by some 400 international media representatives and a few diehard fans who crowded around the entrance to the aquarium, lined the highway and staked out the airport.

"We're Keikophiles," said Vic Henderson of Portland, who has traveled to Newport more than 15 times in the past two years.

Henderson was wearing a homemade "Good-bye Keiko" pin on a Keiko shirt. He drank a can of Keiko root beer and had two Keiko posters sticking out of his backpack.

"We like all sorts of creatures and orcas in particular. They have an almost indefinable presence, intelligence and serene strength," Henderson said.

Henderson said he's more likely to go to Iceland than return to the Oregon Coast Aquarium now that Keiko's gone.

But Phyllis Bell, president of the aquarium, said she's not worried. The aquarium has plans to convert Keiko's old tank into a cold-water exhibit featuring sharks, rays and walk-through acrylic tunnel.

"He put the aquarium on the map, he put Newport on the map and it's not the end of the book for us, it's just the end of a chapter."

Schoolchildren especially have been fascinated by the sleek, black-and-white, 9,050-pound creature. More than 4,000 hand-drawn Keiko pictures have been received from children all over the country, and were strung together with yarn into a giant paper quilt which may be put on display in Iceland.

Chances are Keiko would have remained largely unknown to the world were it not for the "Free Willy" movie, in which a young boy helps a killer whale escape a water circus and its greedy owner.

Fans of the movie soon picked up on the contrast: While the film's Willy swam to freedom, Keiko stayed in the cramped pool in Mexico where the warm water contributed to dangerous lesions on his skin.

Affection for the whale led to the creation of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, financed largely by the movie's makers and the McCaw Foundation of Seattle.

A 150-foot-long tank for Keiko was constructed at the Newport aquarium for $7.3 million, part of the $12 million which has been spent to date on the whale's rehabilitation.

The trip to Iceland, including the net pen that is for now Keiko's new home, has been estimated at $3 million.

Marc Ramirez's phone message number is 206-464-8102. His e-mail address is: mramirez@seattletimes.com

Christine Clarridge's phone message number is 206-464-8983. Her e-mail address is: cclarridge@seattletimes.com

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Key dates in Keiko's life.

-- 1977 or 1978: Keiko is born.

-- 1979: Captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland and taken to an Icelandic aquarium.

-- 1982: Taken to Marineland in Ontario, Canada, where he is trained and performs publicly for the first time.

-- 1985: Sold to Reino Aventura, a Mexico City amusement park.

-- 1992: Featured in the title role of the Warner Bros. movie, "Free Willy."

-- 1996: Transported to Oregon Coast Aquarium for better care.

-- 1998: Flown to Iceland for possible re-entry into the wild.

Source: Free Willy Keiko Foundation

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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 computing-services company in Iceland.