"Free Willy" killer whale turns up in Norway fjord
Date: 05-Sep-02
Country: NORWAY
The 10-metre-(30-foot-) long whale, released into the wild just six weeks ago, even allowed children to ride on his back as he put on a display for them, showing he is the same playful orca in real life as on screen.
Keiko showed up in western Norway after swimming some 1,400 km (870 miles) from an Icelandic sea pen following his release in July. He was spotted in the fjord on Sunday by two 12-year-olds fishing in a small rowboat.
"After the children spotted him, he popped up just a metre (yard) away from the boat. At first, we got scared and sped up to get to land, but then we realised he just wanted to play," Arild Birger Neshaug, 35, father of one of the children, told Reuters this week.
Keiko was captured near Iceland as a young calf and performed in marine amusement parks in Canada and Mexico for almost 20 years.
He was returned to Iceland in 1998 after people saw him as the captive whale in the 1993 movie "Free Willy" and campaigned for him to go home. Millions of dollars have since been spent on preparing him for life in the wild.
"He swam alongside and under our boat all the way to land and stayed with us in the harbour all day and all night," said Neshaug. "It seemed like he was seeking human contact."
Neshaug said his children and their friends later swam with and petted Keiko and even climbed on his back. At night, he said the family could hear the whale breathing in the Skaalvik fjord just outside their holiday home.
He said although he had heard stories about killer whale attacks he was not worried about his children's safety because Keiko "seemed so trusting and kind".
A monitoring team, which has tracked Keiko since he left Iceland, confirmed the whale was the "Free Willy" star.
Norway is among a handful of countries that hunts whales, however, it only kills the minke whale.