Marine Park Wants to Capture Keiko (Un-Free Willy!)

AP ^ | September 23, 2002 | AP

[Tancred]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A Miami marine park has asked the U.S. government for permission to capture Keiko, the whale of "Free Willy" fame, and put him on display.

The National Marine Fisheries Services said Friday it received an application earlier this month from the Miami Seaquarium to transport Keiko from Norway, where he turned up this month in a fjord after making his way there from Iceland.

The Seaquarium issued a news release Friday that said, in part: "Keiko is ... interacting with people, begging for fish and approaching boats with propellers that could severely harm him."

Before the United States has any say in Keiko's future, however, the Norwegian government would have to agree to Keiko's capture. And although that nation remains the only one that commercially hunts whales, defying an international ban, it so far has welcomed Keiko to its waters and guaranteed his safety.

Animal rights activists say they would be furious if the famous whale, who was once the star attraction at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, were returned to captivity.

There was a nine-year, $20 million effort to reintroduce him to the wild after her spent 23 years in the human world.

[Cicero]

Not only that, but a Norwegian ecologist wants to kill him, according to an earlier story.