A WHALE WHO TOUCHED US.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

NEWPORT - Ken Lytwyn fed him. He trained him. He kept Keiko's pool clean.

"He had maids and servants and a 2.1-million gallon pool all to himself - much like a Hollywood superstar," Lytwyn said Saturday, standing in a tunnel at the Passages of the Deep exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

In fact, Keiko, the world-famous killer whale who died at age 27 of pneumonia Friday in Norwegian waters, was a Hollywood superstar, starring in three "Free Willy" movies in the 1990s.

Passages of the Deep, a spectacular series of tunnels where visitors can see sharks, stingrays and other fish gliding below and above them, was created out of the tank Keiko called home here from January 1996 to September 1998.

Lytwyn was one of three mammalogists hired to work with Keiko at the Newport aquarium when the San Francisco-based Free Willy-Keiko Foundation rescued the ailing whale from a Mexico City aquarium. And Lytwyn is the only one who's still here.

"I saw people walk up and put their hand on the window and cry," Lytwyn said Saturday, remembering some of the 2.5 million visitors who came through during Keiko's 32-month rehabilitation. "And other people couldn't figure out what the big deal was. It affected everyone differently. But, yeah, it's sad that he's gone."

Asked if it was the right decision, in retrospect, to reintroduce Keiko to the Icelandic waters where he was born, Lytwyn, 38, refused to speculate.

"I'm not even going to attempt to comment on that one," he said. "You can't second guess the decision that was made. You could do that all day."

In a small town where news travels slowly, many here still hadn't heard of Keiko's death Saturday afternoon. When they found out, their reaction was mostly the same: Keiko never should have been taken away.

"Keiko died?" said Sherrie Jones of Siletz, sitting in the Galley Ho Sports Bar on Highway 101.

"Didn't you know that?" asked her friend. "He died of pneumonia."

He should have been kept at the aquarium, Jones said. "That's all he knew. He liked people contact and they kept pushing him away from them."

Although his time here was relatively short, this town considered one of the world's most famous animals - a name that arguably became as well known as Lassie or Flipper - their very own.

"He was an icon," said Carole Needham of Seal Rock, sitting at the Galley Ho bar with her husband, Dave. "I think the aquarium was doing a good job and he seemed happy."

Keiko brought people to Newport in droves.

"Everybody was always looking for Keiko stuff," said Debbi Sell, a waitress at Mo's Clam Chowder on Bay Street. "We even had a Keiko Root Beer for awhile. The kids loved it."

Thousands lined the 3.5 mile route from the airport to the aquarium when he arrived in 1996. They did the same thing the day a flatbed truck hauled the 9,050-pound, 35-foot-long animal back to the airport for his flight on a cargo plane to Iceland.

And controversy followed him every step of the way. There were those who said he would never survive in the wild, and those who thought it cruel to keep him in a tank any longer.

"Both sides will always think they're right," Lytwyn said. "I tried to stay out of it. My job was the animal first. You have to do what's best for the animal. I wish both sides would have thought more about the animal than themselves."

It wasn't the aquarium's decision to release him. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, which owned Keiko, felt it was best he have a chance in the wild again, said Dave Phillips, the foundation's executive director.

"I have little doubt that if he had been kept in Mexico or at the (Oregon Coast) Aquarium, he'd have been dead long ago," Phillips said Saturday by phone from San Francisco. "Not only did we prolong his life, we dramatically improved his life. We feel like we did a great thing in giving him that chance."

Although killer whales often live between 35 and 50 years in the wild, Keiko - which means "Lucky One" in Japanese - was one of only two male orca whales ever to have survived past 25 years in captivity, Phillips said.

Of course, he never should have been taken from his native waters in the first place, Phillips said. "It was a very bad idea," he said. "We're totally opposed to the capture of orca whales." Most countries, including the United States, now have laws prohibiting it, Phillips said.

Keiko was captured in Iceland by fishermen in 1979 when he was 2 to 3 years old and held in an aquarium. He was later sold to Marineland in Ontario, Canada, where he learned tricks and performed for his first crowds. In the mid-1980s, he was sold to an amusement park in Mexico City.

It was there that movie executives from Warner Brothers discovered the animal and began using him in the first of three "Free Willy" films. The movies, about the touching story of a 12-year-old boy who befriends an orca whale and tries to release him from the constraints of a seedy amusement park owner, were huge hits. Warner Brothers eventually donated millions of dollars to help establish the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation.

He gained 1,000 pounds during his stay here. His lesions disappeared. And he loved to play to the crowds.

"Oh, he was just wonderful," said Vicki Soren of Florence, who was at the Passages of the Deep exhibit Saturday with her stepdaughter and grandchildren. "He played up to the people." Soren, who lived in Idaho then, came all the way to see Keiko on a few occasions. "I personally thought he was better off in the aquarium," she said. "He'd been in captivity for so long, this is all he knew."

During his stay, Lytwyn and the other mammalogists tried to teach Keiko how to eat live fish, but he was used to being fed dead ones by humans.

"I remember the first time we put live herring in his pool, he swam away terrified," Lytwyn said.

When he returned to Iceland in 1998, his handlers there continued teaching him to catch and eat live fish in an operation that cost $500,000 a month. Released from his pen in the Westman Islands, he was reluctant to join killer whale pods. He appeared addicted to mankind.

When he finally ventured out in July 2002, he headed straight for Norway on an 870-mile trek that ended near the village of Halsa. There, he allowed people to pet him and play with him and even crawl on his back. Concerned animal protection authorities finally imposed a ban on approaching him, fearing Keiko would never learn to live on his own in the wild without human contact.

He spent his final year in Taknes Bay where he often roamed free but was fed by keepers.

Katie Wilcox of Portland, who made her first visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium on Saturday with her boyfriend, Matt McKenna, didn't realize she was standing where Keiko used to live. And his death was news to her.

"It does make me a little bit sad," the 27-year-old said. "It's regrettable that a beautiful animal like that was misused by humans. The irony of Free Willy is that he could never really be free."

KEIKO'S JOURNEY

1979: Keiko, about 2, is captured by a fishing boat in Iceland.

1982: Marineland in Ontario, where Keiko has lived since 1982, sells the whale to a Mexico City amusement park for $350,000.

1992: Warner Bros. Studios films "Free Willy," starring Keiko; the movie becomes a surprise hit a year later.

1994: Amid public outcry over deplorable conditions in Mexico, the Free Willy Foundation is formed to find a new home for the whale.

1996: UPS airlifts Keiko from Mexico to a $7.3 million tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where he swims in the sea for the first time in 14 years and gains 1,000 pounds.

1997: The decision is made to move Keiko to the wild in Iceland.

2000: Keiko is fitted for a tracking device and goes on "sea walks."

2002: Keiko begins a journey covering nearly 1,000 miles across the North Atlantic to the coast of Norway. He settles in the Halsa Community and is an instant hit. He's later moved to Taknes Bay and, for the first time, he's in an area where he can come and go freely.

2003: Keiko dies suddenly of pneumonia.

CAPTION(S):

Keiko the killer whale looks through a viewing window at crowds of people in his pool at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. He gained 1,000 pounds during his two-year recovery at the aquarium before he was moved to Iceland in 1998. He swam to Norway in 2002. Despite his release into ocean waters, he maintained contact with humans who monitored and fed him throughout his life. He died Friday of pneumonia. Keiko, star of the `Free Willy' movies and former resident at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, died suddenly Friday in Norwegian waters. His death renews debate over whether he should have been released from captivity. Joe Wilkins III / The Register-Guard, 1996 Keiko brought thousands to the Oregon Coast Aquarium to watch him through an observation window.