Plan to ‘Free Willy’ Will Not Have a Harmonious Ending : Controversy: Sickly star of the movie languishes in a Mexican amusement park while Sea World strikes a deal to transfer whale to U.S. facility. Activists want orca released into the wild.

Animal rights activists rejoiced this summer with the release of “Free Willy,” a movie about a killer whale liberated from a disreputable theme park by a high-spirited young boy.

Their joy, however, has been tempered because the orca that starred in “Free Willy” is anything but free. Keiko, a 14-year-old male, is sickly and captive in an undersized tank in a Mexico City amusement park.

Competing plans to free Keiko now promise to write a real-life chapter in the heart-tugging story of the 3 1/2-ton captive with the big eyes and squeaky voice. The two sides embroiled in the tug of war over Keiko’s fate have diametrically opposed philosophies on what should happen to the mammoth sea mammal.

A trade group of theme parks and aquariums, led by San Diego’s Sea World, wants to provide Keiko with better medical attention and improved living conditions. But animal rights activists want Keiko released into his home waters off Iceland.

The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums appears to have the upper hand. Last week, the group announced an agreement with the Mexican theme park, where Keiko has languished without killer-whale companionship since 1985. The group’s goal is to bring the whale to a park or aquarium in the United States to cavort with others of his species.

“By applying Sea World’s experience and expertise in killer whale husbandry and breeding, we hope to assure a future for him that is filled with stimulation and high-quality care,” said Brad F. Andrews, zoological director at Sea World’s San Diego park.

But the animal activists, who say it is immoral to keep killer whales penned up as entertainers, see sinister motives in Sea World’s plans.

“This is an obvious and cynical attempt by Sea World and the rest of the captive-animal industry to undermine our efforts to get Keiko released,” said Jerye Mooney, marine mammal coordinator for the Fund for Animals Inc.

Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, said he is considering a lawsuit against the alliance and Sea World for interfering with his agreement with the El Nuevo Reino Aventura in Mexico City to release Keiko.

“We suspected (Sea World and other parks) would do anything necessary to block Keiko’s release,” Balcomb said. “They stand to lose millions of dollars if a movie-star killer whale is released into the wild successfully and the public realizes that there is no reason that whales need to be kept in captivity.”

Michael Jackson, who sang the theme song for “Free Willy,” is also entering the fray. He plans to visit Keiko this week or next while he is in Mexico City on his Dangerous Tour.

The management of Reino Aventura, the largest theme park in Latin America, says it has not precluded the idea of seeing Keiko released. Balcomb, however, predicts that that will not happen as long as Sea World is in control.

Jim McBain, corporate director of veterinary medicine for Sea World, said the activists are Johnny-come-latelys who have seized on Keiko’s well-publicized plight only to advance their animal-rights agenda.

“I’ve been involved with Keiko’s care since 1991,” McBain said. “I don’t think Ken Balcomb and the others had even heard of Keiko in 1991.”

The agreement between Sea World and Reino Aventura calls for Sea World to take equipment and technicians to Mexico City to lower the temperature in Keiko’s tank to cure the contagious skin disease that has left him lethargic, underweight and bleeding from the mouth.

After Keiko is cured in the next six to 12 months, McBain said, the goal is to transfer him to an as-yet-unselected aquatic park or aquarium in the United States or elsewhere with a larger holding tank and other killer whales. The alliance has 31 member institutions nationwide.

Balcomb, whose group has done whale research for the United States, Canadian and Greenland governments, said his plan was to cure Keiko’s skin condition and then slowly introduce him into the ocean by using a “sea pen” and underwater speakers to reacquaint him with orca communication.

“Obviously, Sea World doesn’t want a bunch of enviro-crazies like us maybe getting the public more interested in whales in the wild than whales as circus performers,” Balcomb said.

The skirmish over Keiko is the latest round between Sea World and the activists, who want all captive orcas released. Earlier this year, an aquatic park in Barcelona, Spain, sided with Sea World and agreed to ship the killer whale Ulysses to San Diego.

Orca specialists at Sea World say that a whale that has been kept in captivity has probably lost its ability to forage for food as well as its immunity to sea bacteria. Sea World has 19 killer whales at its four parks.

“As romantic a notion as it may sound, taking an animal like Keiko and doing the ‘Born Free’ thing just isn’t realistic,” McBain said.