Killing Keiko

by Mark A. Simmons

  E-mail: May 5, 1999

  Subj: more …

  From: Alyssa

  I know you are in a very difficult negotiation. As for my own advice, I offer the following input, not to pressure you either way, but rather to give you more information to consider. Don’t be prideful. I fully understand not wanting to dismantle an organization, but don’t be impatient either. This experience is right up your alley. No one is more qualified than you to do this; it is a natural progression and culmination of your work and school background. You can still have [your company] and all of its potential in the future. You do not need to be in such a hurry.

  I know how exciting this project is to you. It feels good, not only to work Keiko, but to work at the top of the game. You are MADE for this project; I’d hate to see you give up all of the positives in the name of something that may or may not be that important down the road.

  Understand the other chess player. You mentioned some very valid fears of Charles and OFS. Realize that these are solid trepidations that freaks like Howard Garrett are reinforcing. You need to get a line out to Ken and Kelly Balcomb, so that you don’t have the peanut gallery advertising incorrect info. OFS is not to be looked at like an adversary.

  Finally, whatever you do, I love you very much. Be safe and warm and know that my heart and mind brim with pride at being your wife … your soul mate.

  Your Wing, Aly

  At times I believe that we men are in a constant state of self-destruction and that the only thing preventing us from sinking into oblivion is the right woman. My wingman or “wingwoman” had helped me turn a difficult corner. She was right; I wanted to be on this project and turning it down because they wouldn’t hire our company would have left me with haunting regrets. This project wasn’t going to last forever, and I could return to our company and its goals in the future.

  That morning, Dave and I had gone to the bay pen to distance ourselves from the meetings and hopefully gain a fresh perspective. This is where I received the e-mail from Alyssa and after reading it, it was as if a demon had been exorcised from my psyche.

  During that afternoon, Robin met with Charles as Dave and I were headed in from the bay pen. Famous for his skill at diplomacy, Robin was able to endear himself to Charles, and together they framed a sound understanding for our participation in the project. Among other agreements reached, Robin accepted the position as an OFS employee. He would be the new Keiko Release Project Manager alongside Jeff Foster. He also paved the way for my inclusion as the director of Animal Husbandry. This meant that I would be solely dedicated to Keiko and answer only to Robin and Jeff. Monumental change had to occur with this project and the way Keiko was being managed.

  This structure allayed my final trepidations about becoming an OFS employee. That night I shared the outcome with Alyssa, to whom I owed my very involvement. The struggle and compromise behind us and with a singular focus now unbridled from lesser things, I was ready to put my full attention into every aspect of Keiko’s rehabilitation.

  E-mail: May 6, 1999

  To: Alyssa

  Subj: Hey

  Came to an agreement with OFS today. I will be on a contract basis for 12 months as an OFS employee. The duration will be stipulated at a minimum of 12 months or as necessary until Keiko is released or relocated to a permanent housing facility.

  The next few days will be spent not only outlining the details of a behavioral plan but also creating my position description, title and responsibilities. Robin is the project manager. He answers only to the OFS board/executive committee. I will answer only to Robin … I also expressed to Charles Vinick my interest in business operations. He acted as if he was very interested in utilizing me in that capacity. Knowing Robin, and our past relationship, I feel good about being able to implement and influence organizational development. He said I was free to take on any and as much responsibility as I wished. We will see … there is tons of work to be done.

  Abs—I miss you terribly. I hope I can get used to this … it’s tough. Foreign place, strange things … worst part is my best friend is away from me. Your words and philosophies are profoundly important to me, now and always.

  Love you,

  Mark

  Dave did not agree to employment with OFS. During the scope of the meetings with Charles, Dave had been hopelessly turned off. He wanted only to do what was best for Keiko, and to him that meant focusing on Keiko and only Keiko. The process of running an organization and a project of this size and scope invariably required discussion of rather unpleasant topics. After witnessing the “making of the sausage,” Dave’s impressions of the project, or more precisely the decision-matrix in charge of Keiko’s release, left him with too many doubts about its eventual outcome.

  Had we recognized the gravity of Howard Garrett’s accusation, it’s doubtful that either Robin or I would have continued on with our arrangement. I believe that Dave somehow felt this underlying threat to the project even if he couldn’t put his finger on it at the time.

  The fact was that Howard Garrett had not been the only one harboring a deep hatred and distrust toward us. Even within the board of directors, there were those that shared Garrett’s sentiments. Far removed from the organizational turmoil over our involvement, many of our challenges in preparing Keiko for release were right in front of us, in broad daylight; measurable and factual. This is where we placed our focus.

  We would not know until later, the real antagonist that threatened our ability to succeed was neither the harsh environment nor the behavioral obstacles that stood in Keiko’s path; it was ignorance, dissention, and foul play behind-the-scenes working to erode everything we represented. It was the human element. Eventually we would discover the enemy within was not limited to the organizational headquarters in Berkley or Santa Barbara; even among us, there were those who monitored our every action, reporting to board members and poisoning the waters from day one of our involvement.

  Regardless, for the time being, Robin and I had a clear path forward and felt unhindered by the office politics of the FWKF. In essence and in practice, we simply ignored the FWKF board, made possible by the project’s geographical distance. From that day forth we approached the task of Keiko’s rehabilitation with renewed energy, spending the next few days outlining specific changes that would be implemented immediately. By May 10, Robin had been in Iceland for more than a month. We decided he would head back home for some much needed R&R and to begin his rotation opposite me.

  I would stay in Heimaey until sometime in June and get the ball rolling with Keiko and Phase One of the whale’s rehabilitation.

  Extracted and Condensed Summary from the original Release Outline as presented to OFS:

  As presented to Ocean Futures Society, February 27, 1999

  Excerpt:

  A. Deprogramming

  1. Multiple-Baseline Design—extinction of unwanted conditioned history.

  2. ABAB/Reversal Design—Functional project relationship

  B. Cognitive Restructuring

  1. Overt vs. Covert applied modifications.

  C. Natural Environment

  1. Transference

  2. Modeling

  3. Response Contingencies.

  ABAB: An experimental design in which behavior is measured during a baseline period (A), during a period when a treatment is introduced (B), during the reinstatement of the conditions that prevailed in the baseline period (A), and finally during a reintroduction of the treatment (B). It is commonly used in operant research to isolate cause-effect relationships.

  A Legendary Place

  The small island community of Heimaey has a calloused history that hardened its inhabitants resulting in a rich bond and brotherhood that suits the island-village well. Boasting a population of less than five thousand, everyone knows everyone, and strangers stick out like a redhead in a sea of blond, blue-eyed people.

  One can easily stumble upon stories of heroism and triumphant resilience against the elements when tra
ipsing about town or frequenting the small tavern Lundinn on a busy night (which is most nights). Once beyond the initial cool gaze afforded strangers, little effort is required in becoming the favored guest of an overzealous fisherman more than willing to donate the Icelandic version of an Irish coffee while recounting a remarkable story with a matter-of-fact poise. Unless a glutton for punishment, I highly recommend avoiding such friendly gestures. A single dose of an Icelandic fisherman’s Irish coffee, accompanied by a hearty shoulder grip is hardly an equitable exchange for a good yarn and may land the more gullible a thankless job onboard his fishing boat (a close encounter of which I have firsthand experience).

  The town of Heimaey had a brand of small town charm uniquely its own. Townspeople were friendly, but something much deeper ran beneath the surface. It was as if there was a secret society behind the outwardly affable nature of most; though not apparent to a casual visitor. It took living and working in Heimaey to recognize the profound bond that the locals shared with one another.

  Unlike any U.S. hometown claimed by the Keiko project team members, Heimaey had no crime to speak of. I doubted that anyone, a few I was sure of, ever locked the doors to his or her home. Children played throughout town with no parent watching over or worrying about their safety. On trips to the nearby grocery store, I remember being shocked that young mothers would leave their babies in strollers parked just outside the door while they shopped inside. I couldn’t imagine the culture of security ingrained so deeply as to afford such comfort. But it wasn’t the utopian safety or friendliness of Heimaey that gave its people a distinctive quality. It was something much deeper, more generational, something they were raised with and something individual to this island.

  Iceland has perhaps one of the most pure cultures remaining. Very little outside influence on the society has taken place over the centuries. Its Nordic language, Icelandic, is a subgroup of Germanic languages and one of the oldest in the world. It is said that a modern Icelander could converse easily with a fellow countryman from the twelfth century, so little has changed about the language, the dialect, and the written word. The island of Heimaey is believed to have been first settled in 930 AD.

  Dating back to the seventeenth century, Heimaey had been the target of the Turkish abductions, known as one of the most violent events in Iceland’s history. Barbary pirates raided the island in 1627 capturing or killing more than fifty percent of the inhabitants. Survivors were spirited off to Algiers and into a life of brutal slavery. These invasions happened again some years later when nearly 800 Icelanders were taken into slavery.

  Between 1963 and 1973, several volcanic eruptions plagued the small town. In the most destructive of these eruptions, the volcano Eldfel began spewing volcanic ash and lava on the early morning of January 23, 1973. Almost the entire population of Heimaey had to be evacuated to the mainland within hours of the eruption’s start. Many homes and farmsteads near the main fissure of the eruption were completely destroyed, either buried in lava flow or burned by flying lava bombs.

  In addition to the violent history with Barbary pirates and challenges of the volcano fire mountain, the small fishing village has had no shortage of sacrifice at the hands of the unpredictable North Atlantic. Many families carry a scarred history of loved ones lost at sea. Local legends frequent the town’s few drinking holes and lend to the otherworldly feel of the culture. In 1984, a local man swam over six hours in the frigid waters after his boat sank five kilometers east of Heimaey. No normal human could withstand the severely hypothermic waters for such an extended period. The man traipsed about the town and often greeted obvious outsiders who ventured into Lundinn with the same practiced taunt, “You a swimmer? You’re no swimmer.” A large man, his chides were often a drunken attempt to start physical conflict, but few patronized his invitation. Among the locals he’s a living legend. There is also is a monument to Jon Vigfusson who scaled an impassable vertical cliff in 1928 to save the lives of his crewmates after their vessel stranded just offshore.

  The island is surrounded by one of the richest fishing grounds in the region. Fishing operations that run out of Heimaey supply nearly fifteen percent of Iceland’s total fish export. While stationing the Keiko project in Heimaey made it easy to feed a four-ton killer whale, it didn’t, however, lend much in the way of moral support to the release effort. Most fishermen on Heimaey had no concept of what the Keiko Release Project was about. There are an estimated 5,000 killer whales in the waters surrounding Iceland. To them, killer whales were a nuisance that interfered with fishing and competed for their resources. They often scoffed or laughed at us whenever we were fortunate enough to find ourselves in the same restaurant or bar the night a fishing vessel would return from weeks at sea. On many occasions the happenstance fisherman would take great joy in telling us that Keiko was no more than dog food and that we silly Americans were wasting money. The more serious and less social fisherman was not to be debated. At times, this contention in the community over what should be done with Keiko was palpable.

  Not only was the Keiko Release Project considered a ridiculous venture by the hard-core fishing types, but also eventually the project would conflict with their livelihood and threaten the very food on their table. This time would come soon enough, but for now we had many more friends in the island chain of Vestmannaeyjar than enemies. Those friends welcomed every chance to teach us how to be festive in the long dark days of winter.

  After warming up to their guests, locals are fond of sharing the three winter hobbies of Icelanders. They will deliver a robust slap on the back hard enough to throw one off balance and explain that during the twenty-hour days of winter darkness, their favorite pastimes are to “drink, fight and f-ck.” Great shock value …only I’m confident the saying was not lacking of some truth, but rather born of much veracity. Such sayings, derived from fact, have a way of becoming legend in a Land of Fire and Ice.

  In unlikely ways, the island village and the Keiko Release Project were perfectly matched; both somehow apart from the routine world surrounding Vestmannaeyjar. The island, the townspeople and their iconic guest comingled, forming a singular backdrop that defined an era unto its own in Heimaey’s long and colorful history.

  The uncertainty of our involvement now behind us, I found a deep connection with this new community, this new animal. After an intense first month, what seemed an eternity; it was finally time to get to work.

  4

  The Plan for Release—Phase I

  If releasing Keiko was not as simple as moving him to Iceland, then what did a successful release look like? No one really knew for sure. Releasing an adult male killer whale like Keiko, who had been in the care of man for practically his entire life, had never before been attempted. However, the basic requirements for a cetacean to be eligible for release had been defined in 1993 by researchers for the U.S. Navy. These requirements had become the standard for evaluating release candidates. Represented here in their most simple form, the criteria were comprised of nine prerequisites that Keiko would have to meet prior to being considered viable for release to the wild:

  1. Health: He had to be in good health. Keiko could not be reliant on any medication or veterinary assistance. His immune system would have to be able to deal with anything he might encounter without benefit of artificial support. Beyond the various pathogens or viruses that might exist in the wild, Keiko would also encounter bacteria and parasites found in live fish. His system would have to learn to cope with all of these new threats.

  2. Physical Conditioning: He had to be in good shape (i.e., not injured or overly fat or thin) and able to travel great distances when necessary. Keiko had to be the equivalent of an ultra-marathoner or long-distance trailblazer.

  3. Foraging Capability: Perhaps the most talked about in the general public forum, Keiko would have to eat live fish. It would not be enough to show us that he would or could eat live fish in a controlled setting. He would need to demonstrate the ability to find and catch his own foo
d. In killer whale societies, this is most often done through cooperative hunting. For this and many other reasons, finding Keiko a pod of wild whales that would accept him was paramount to his survival.

  4. Normal Aversion to Man-made Equipment and Material: Keiko would need to be taught to stay away from man. That meant not approaching boats, docks, harbors or anything that constituted human activity in the ocean. He could not solicit for attention from humans during the inevitable encounters with man-made vessels at sea.

  5. Avoidance of Humans and Human Contact: Keiko would need to forget his lifelong relationship with humans. He would have to replace his human relationships and prefer the kinship of his own kind. Conversely, attraction to human activity would be thereafter considered nuisance behavior and in regulatory fashion, mandate that intervention and permanent care be imposed.

  6. Lack of Sensitivity to Monitoring Equipment: Basically, Keiko would be equipped with a tracking device, important for maintaining remote supervision of his well-being when he was successfully out on his own. All release plans require an intervention plan: an emergency plan to rescue the released animal should it get into trouble. Just because an animal may leave or be deemed “released” does not mean its release has been successful. Success would only come after surviving at least a season and showing further signs of thriving in its new environment or social group. Many times in the aftermath of release, even of rehabilitated wild animals, they become compromised after months or longer when back in the wild. Keiko would have to learn to accept a tracking device attached to his body.