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CNN Live Today

Keiko Swims From Iceland to Norway

Aired September 04, 2002 - 10:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We have an update on the true life odyssey of Keiko, the killer whale, that starred in the "Free Willy" movies, one of Daryn's favorite series of films.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I love "Free Willy."

COOPER: Well it turns out he's -- he surfaced not far from the wilds where he was released and that has marine experts worried about his survival.

CNN's Diana Muriel is in Halsa, Norway, and joins us by telephone.

Good morning -- Diana.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Anderson.

I'm standing around three feet away from the whale right now. He's come up to the dockside in the small town of Galtefjord (ph), which is near Halsa, about 250 miles northwest of Oslo. He seems to be extremely tame. There's a collection of children on the dockside, and he's allowing them occasionally to get close enough to touch him. One small child, aged about 3 years old, was giggling in delight, and he clearly liked that. He came up and exposed more of himself and tried to get close to that particular child.

You can see clearly on his back his tracking device, bright yellow tracking device, and of course that tracking device has enabled scientists to follow him here. They are disappointed with the -- with the way that he is coming in close to land and close to boats and seeking out human contact. This could potentially be a big problem for Keiko. They spent millions and millions of dollars on trying to rehabilitate him back into the wild. And he did spend most of the summer with a pod of killer whales or orcas, as they're also known, nearby.

But he now seems to have found himself coming into this fjord, and he seems to like it here. He's been allowing people to swim with him. I spoke to one girl who said that she found him -- she found him in the water. She was out on her boat and she went swimming with him on Monday morning, just herself, just alone. She said he was extremely gentle. He allowed her to touch and -- touch him and to dive with him.

And that seems to be the pattern. He comes in in the mornings around 10:00 and he comes in again in the early evenings, because it's around quarter past 4:00 in the afternoon here and he's coming in. He doesn't seem to be feeding during the day, say the scientists that I've spoken to. They say that he seems to be feeding, if he's feeding at all, at night. And this is why they're concerned because he's wasting too much energy playing with humans and not out there eating the 70 kilos of the fresh fish that he must eat every day to survive.

He's about seven meters long. He weighs about 3,000 to 4,000 kilos, depending on how much feeding he's doing. And he seems in relatively healthy condition. They seem to be pretty pleased with the way he's faring, but they are concerned that if this goes on for much longer, then he may never rehabilitate himself back into the wild -- Anderson.

COOPER: Well, Diana, there was a lot of controversy when a Norwegian whaling expert suggested that this whale should be put down, in effect, that -- saying that it probably could not survive the winter. A lot of scientists have now disagreed with that whaling expert. Is there any update on that? I mean this whale was released six weeks ago, is there any evidence that it has not been doing well? Is it -- is it -- has it dropped in weight at all or...

MURIEL: No.

COOPER: ... does it seem to be feeding?

MURIEL: No, that doesn't seem to be the case, Anderson. It seems to be fairly healthy, according to the scientists, and there was a storm of protests that met that call for the whale to be -- to be destroyed. He seems to be doing OK.

But the trouble is that if he keeps this up, if he keeps coming back and seeking human contact, then it will get harder for him to live in the wild, although he has already made contact, the scientists tell me, with a pod of orcas. And so he has been able to survive with the pod and to feed with them, but he hasn't stayed with them.

And the question is now, can they rehabilitate him? They are discussing a plan to take him back up to Iceland, take him north again and start the process again. This attempt -- this recent attempt seems to have failed, although they're still evaluating the position at the moment -- Anderson.

COOPER: As you point out, this has been a very expensive operation. It's taken a couple of years and I believe about $20 million to release him back into the wild.

Diana Muriel, thanks very much. We'll probably check in with you later today on an update. Thanks very much, Diana.

KAGAN: Well how many times have we heard the story before, you get a big movie, become a big star, go into rehab, have issues and can't quite get on track?

COOPER: Yes. Well he's a people person. You know he's a people whale. So...

KAGAN: A people whale. COOPER: That's right. He needs the love.

KAGAN: He has -- he has issues, as we say. Yes, just show him a little love.

COOPER: Yes, well it's kind of sad because I mean the pictures are great of the kids playing with him and stuff...

KAGAN: I know.

COOPER: ... and yet you kind of think well is this doing harm long term so?

KAGAN: Just go out and finish your dinner. There's whales in Africa that aren't eating or something like that.

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