ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601110160
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEWPORT, ORE.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Enthralled by 7,700 pounds of slippery, seafaring mammal, hundreds of whale fans turned out Monday to get a close-up glimpse of the unpaid star of ``Free Willy'' in his a spacious new home in captivity.
In a scene that combined elements of a Beatles airport arrival and a Jacques Cousteau special, the ailing killer whale named Keiko arrived Sunday at the Oregon Coast Aquarium after a plane trip from a Mexican amusement park.
Monday, several hundred people crowded into an underwater viewing area as the aquarium offered visitors their first good look at the whale.
``He had a good night. He ate breakfast, and he seems to be very comfortable,'' said Diane Hammond, an aquarium spokeswoman.
The crowd Sunday numbered in the thousands. Families, some chanting ``Keiko, Keiko,'' came from hundreds of miles to stand behind barricades and greet the orca as he arrived at a new home built for him with $7 million in donations from around the world.
``Now he has a big tank with water just like they have in the ocean,'' said 5-year-old Caitlin Waite of Beaverton.
Cheers went up from the crowd as the whale was lowered gently into the water and began slapping his tail in the air and swimming in circles.
Keiko's veterinarian, Lanny Cornell, pronounced the whale in good shape following his 20-hour odyssey.
``I was thrilled to see him swim off and start eating and squealing,'' Cornell said. ``He started eating within five minutes of being in the pool.''
The whale, which has performed for the past 10 years in a small tank at Mexico City's Reino Aventura amusement park, made the trip without any serious problems.
Though flabby from life in his small pool, Keiko is about 2,000 pounds underweight. He has a wartlike skin virus, a weakened immune system and digestive problems. His teeth are bad from chewing on the sides of his pool.
In the movie, the whale escaped his plight with the help of a troubled boy. The success of ``Free Willy'' focused attention on Keiko's poor living conditions, and Reino Aventura agreed to donate him to Earth Island Institute of San Francisco, which set up the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation.
Warner Bros., which cast the whale to star in the first ``Free Willy'' film in 1992, contributed $2 million to the effort; other contributions came from schoolchildren - $30,000 alone from Northwest Elementary School in Tampa, Fla.
United Parcel Service, touting its biggest delivery ever, arranged for a chartered C-130 cargo plane to carry Keiko in a giant, water-filled container. Because of the 42,000-pound cargo, the plane had to make two stops for refueling and a change of water.
Keiko's new 2 million-gallon tank is four times the size of his old one and is filled with cold, purified sea water instead of warm salinated freshwater. He has a concrete beach and an artificial reef and will have a daily diet of 300 pounds of restaurant-quality fresh fish.
His new owners hope to rehabilitate Keiko, who is about 16 or 17 years old, so he eventually can be returned to the wild, just like the whale in the movie. If that doesn't happen, there is talk of finding him a mate.
His arrival delighted Pam Lawson and her three children, who left Portland early Sunday and waited all day.
``We've been following this story all along. We're fascinated by it,'' she said. ``He's ill, and he needs a special place like this.''
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Keiko, the unpaid star of "Free Willy," swims aroundby CNBin his new 2 million-gallon tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Type first letter of feature OR type help for list of commands FIND S-DB DB OPT SS WRD QUIT QUIT Save options? YES NO GROUP YOU'VE SELECTED: QUIT NO login: c