Orca May Die Before Being Freed Whales Die Earlier In Captivity; Keiko’s Future Uncertain

Captivity may mean a shorter life for Keiko, the celebrity killer whale headed for the Oregon Coast Aquarium later this year.

In the ocean, Keiko, now 16, could live another 15 years. But in a tank, whether in Oregon or Mexico, he is living on borrowed time, some researchers say.

“They don’t do very well,” said Howard Garrett, administrator for the independent, nonprofit Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash.

“The males tend to die in their early to mid-teens, and the females tend to die around age 20 to 22,” Garrett says. “We just hope Keiko can hang on long enough to be moved up to Newport.”

Not all researchers agree. David Bain, killer whale research director for a Marine World park in California, says captive whales can live a full life with proper care.

Keiko will be moved before the end of the year to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where a huge tank is under construction. Experts there hope to help Keiko regain his health and train him to survive in the wild so he can be released in his home waters off Iceland.

The orca was captured when he was 2.

The movement to release him began after he starred in the 1993 movie “Free Willy,” about a boy’s effort to free a captive whale.

The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, based in San Francisco, has raised more than $5 million for the move to Oregon. Another $4 million is needed.

The Center for Whale Research is a consultant in the effort.

Keiko’s current health problems probably stem from his cramped conditions and being cut off from his “pod” or family, Garrett says.

A virus has given Keiko a wartlike skin condition. He is about 2,000 pounds underweight. His dorsal fin flops from lack of exercise. Chewing on the edge of his tank has ground his front teeth down.

Tanks are seldom big enough to allow whales the exercise they need, he says. And in the wild, orcas spend their whole lives within their pod.

Severing those ties is emotionally devastating, Garrett says. “Their immune systems become depressed. They become prey to opportunistic infections like tuberculosis and pneumonia.”“They’re long odds in both cases,” he says.

More than 70 percent of the 130 orcas captured - largely for marine parks and aquariums - since 1961 have died, according to California animal rights activist Jerye Mooney. Those that died lived an average of only five years after capture.