Word: whaled
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...extraordinary effort, but then again, this was no ordinary cetacean. The 22-ft.-long, 10,000-lb. orca with the droopy dorsal fin was none other than Keiko, the star of the 1993 hit movie Free Willy. In the film, Keiko plays a killer whale condemned to a life in cruel captivity until released to ocean freedom through the efforts of a small boy. The part came easily to Keiko, whose real life story paralleled Willy's, and the movie inadvertently made his plight known worldwide. Now, in an ambitious experiment, a dedicated team of scientists, animal behaviorists, trainers, divers...
...spot. For the uninitiated, it was hard to make out what was going on. A drug-smuggling bust? A search-and-rescue operation? The filming of the next James Bond movie? The reality was odder still: all these humans were scurrying around in an effort to take a killer whale for an ocean walk and find him some of his own kind to talk...
...least, says Vinick in tones of relief, "Keiko speaks killer whale." Long years alone in a concrete-sided pool--which, unlike the open seas, quickly bounced back any of the sounds Keiko made--did little to hone his conversational skills. Keiko was only a juvenile of two in 1979 when he was captured in Icelandic waters by the Gudrun, a ship that, ironically, is based in Heimaey's harbor, next to the bay that is Keiko's present home. Shipped to a marine park in Canada, Keiko did not respond well to captivity, and lesions started appearing on his skin...
...Sound Vol. 5: Rare Masters." To an obsessive, of course, the words "rare master" are Pavlovian triggers like "never released", "obscure B-side" and "the Beatles butcher-cover." That it turned out to be a great record was irrelevant - I had no choice. I was Ahab, the white whale was off the starboard. Somehow I got the money (probably around six or seven dollars) and "Rare Masters" was in my hands...
Nearby Point Reyes National Seashore--a vast patch of ocean cliffs and beaches, bird sanctuaries, farms and forests--is great for exploring, and there's kayaking in Tomales Bay. In early winter the famous Point Reyes Lighthouse, 308 steps down a cliff, provides a dramatic whale-watching vista...