Another story about Oregon made CNN's front page today. They were discussing the drop off in attendance at the Newport aquarium since Keiko moved to Iceland. Oh, didn't you know? Until recently, Keiko (aka "Free Willey") the killer whale lived just down the road a few miles from our main office. Keiko came to Oregon to recuperate and acclimate to cooler waters before returning to Iceland (after years in a Mexican amusement park).
Keiko drew large crowds while he was here, nearly doubling attendance to 1.2 million guests per year. Now attendance is expected to drop down to about 750,000. That may seem like a small number in comparison to Disneyland or Sea-World, but taken in perspective, it's huge. The Census Bureau estimated the population of Oregon at 2.8 million people in 1990 (and growing 8% every 10 years). So 1.2 million visitors has quite a positive impact.
Now the Oregon Coast Aquarium is refitting the large tank that Keiko had into three smaller tanks and adding a clear underwater tunnel so that visitors can walk through the fishes! It should be ready for guests by 2000, so why don't you drop by the next time you're up our way.
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