Keiko, probably the most famous whale in the world, is in the headlines again. You know the story: ripped from his family in Iceland's waters at the age of two by the greedy marine circus industry, Keiko spent the next 17 years in prison-like concrete tanks in Canada and Mexico until he was fictionally freed in the hit movie "Free Willy."

In the wild, orcas never leave their mothers; photo by Center for Whale Research.

In 1994, Earth Island Institute founded the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the debilitated orca was flown to a specially-built recovery pool in Oregon in 1996. After years of care to get him back to health and vitality, in 1999 Keiko was flown to his home off the coast of Iceland. There he lived in a pen while being reintroduced to the open sea and pods of orcas that feed in the area each summer.

This July Keiko's guardians led him out to sea where he quickly bonded with several pods of orcas. By early August the whales were heading east with the herring schools. A small transmitter fixed to Keiko's back showed that he was swimming up to 90 miles a day and diving deep to feed.

Apparently enjoying his freedom, Keiko kept swimming east all August-nearly 1,000 miles-until he arrived at the coast of Norway. There, one day, he came upon a small fishing boat heading into a fjord. Keiko followed. At the small town of Halsa in central Norway, he was welcomed with open arms. Children swam with him. Thousands of Norwegians drove to the fjord to see the friendly whale. The press arrived in droves.

Some Norwegians were not so happy, however. The ruthless whalers who defy the international ban on commercial whaling don't want to see public sympathy for marine mammals. One whaler said Keiko should be turned into meatballs. But children across Norway and around the world sent out a cry to protect the whale. The Norwegian government, imagining a public relations disaster if Keiko was mistreated or killed, quickly imposed a 50-meter protective zone around Keiko and agreed to work with the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.

There are even some signs that the Norwegian government understands the growing opposition to the captivity of whales, at least this whale. In a letter to Florida Senator Bob Graham opposing the Miami Seaquarium's bizarre request to go capture Keiko, the Norwegian ambassador to the U.S. wrote: "In principle we are skeptical to keeping huge animals like whales in captivity. In Norway there is no tradition for that. Also, we regard it as problematic in an animal welfare perspective to send the whale on the long voyage from Norway to Florida. At the moment the whale has a freedom that makes it possible for him to make choices. He is not in conditions that will stress him.

"However, we do not doubt that Keiko would get good support in Miami, but it would be a great step back to put him in an aquarium again.

"Finally, I would like to assure you that the people in Halsa are now very much attached to Keiko, and would not like to see him depart."

So it appears that Keiko will winter off the Norwegian coast, swimming free at last.