Keiko Offered Permanent Residence

Keiko has been splashing around in the Taknes Bay in Halsa township on Norway's northwest coast since late last fall. He was steered to the bay after he first surfaced in a nearby fjord and delighted local residents.

His presence and his antics proved an immediate tourist draw, but those who'd been trying to reintroduce Keiko to the wild after a lifetime in captivity wanted him in a more protected area, farther from humans and closer to the herring streams and other whales that frequent the area.

Attempts to integrate him with wild whales last spring failed, however, and Keiko frankly seems content where he is. He's now being fed 40 kilos of herring every day and is being tended by four full-time whale experts, courtesy of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation at a cost of some NOK 4 million (about USD 570,000) a year.

He also continues to attract admirers.

An estimated 20,000 visitors made their way to the bay in the county of Moere og Romsdal, just northeast of Kristiansund, this summer in the hopes of spotting Keiko. Local stores and ferry companies have reported increased business, and township officials are openly pleased.

Township manager Odd Halsoe claims Keiko has put Halsa on the tourist map, and he's more than welcome to stay if efforts fail to return the whale to the wild.

"We'll do all we can so that Keiko can live the rest of his life in the Taknes Bay, if that should be necessary," Halsoe told newspaper Aftenposten.

Biologist Thorbjoerg Valdis Kristjansdottir of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation still hopes the 26-year-old orca will find a flock of his own.

"Our greatest hope is that Keiko will be reunited with a flock of wild orcas," she said. "Then our job will be accomplished."