Memorial to Whale--and an Apology

A whale that loved ships and used to play with scuba divers still captivates Scandinavians, even in death.

The Randers museum has set up a two-month memorial exhibition with the whale’s skeleton as the main feature.

Spaekke, a 4-year-old, 13-foot killer whale, developed loyal fans after it spent 10 months on a kind of goodwill tour along the coasts of Norway and Denmark. He first appeared near Aalesund, Norway, in 1988 and followed the ferryboat Voksa for two weeks.

Some whale experts speculated that Spaekke had fallen in love with the ferry’s metal hull. Others said he seemed to like the crowds--up to 25,000 people a day--who watched him play in the ferry’s wake and show his teeth in a grin.

Fans bought Spaekke T-shirts, postcards, photographs, posters and inflatable whales.

Newspapers reported Spaekke’s death last August under such headlines as “Scandinavia Mourns the Whale.” Mourners scattered flowers on the Randers fjord.

Whale lovers recovered his body from a beach, cleaned the bones and took them to Copenhagen, where the skeleton was reassembled for the exhibit.

Pollution and low salt levels in the fjord may have contributed to Spaekke’s death.

Danes placed a paper effigy of the whale near the fjord with the inscription: “In memory of Spaekke. Sorry about the water quality.”