Keiko the whale. Aka Free Willy. I was 8 in 1997 when he was in Oregon. I'll always remember it. Beautiful
Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium. At the time, he was named Siggi. In 1982, he was sold to Marineland in Ontario Canada. At this new facility, he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions indicative of poor health and was also bullied by older orcas.Keiko was then sold ro now named six flags mexico, in Mexico City, in 1985. There, he was given the name Keiko, a feminine japanese name that means "lucky one" or "blessed child". He arrived in Mexico via an off-duty mail cargo plane from the northwest territories. At the time, he was only 10 feet long and was housed at the Mexican facility in a tank intended for smaller dolphins.
He was found by movie scouts at the run-down park and became the star of free willy in 1993. The publicity from his role in the popular film led to an effort by WB studios to find him a better home. Donations from Warner Brothers and others led to the establishment of the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation in February 1995. With donations from the foundation and millions of school children, the Oregon Coast Aquarium was given over $7 million to construct facilities to return him to health with the hope of eventually returning him to the wild. Reino Aventura donated Keiko to the Foundation. UPS provided ground transportation to the nearby airport in a specialized container. Before he left the amusement park in Mexico, Keiko performed for the public for the last time. Weighing about 7,700 pounds, he was transported by air in a C130 Hercules, donated by UPS; during the flight, the orca was in a 30 foot long transfer tank filled with sea water cooled with ice
On arrival in Oregon in 1996, Keiko was housed in a massive, new (2,000,000 US gallons (7,600,000 l) concrete enclosure containing seawater, his first experience with this medium. His weight had increased significantly by June 1997, to 9,620 pounds. The plan to return him to the wild was a topic of much controversy. Some felt his years of captivity made such a return impossible. Researchers in a scientific study later said attempts to return him to the wild were unsuccessful, but that monitoring him with radio and satellite tags was part of "a contingency plan for return to human care," which secured the long-term well-being of the animal. Others considered his release misguided. The Norwegian pro-whaling politician Steinar Bastesen made international news for his statement that Keiko should instead be killed and the meat sent to Africa as foreign aid. The fucker.
Keiko was fully free by the summer of 2002 and departed Icelandic waters in early August following some killer whales but not integrated with the pod. (His journey was tracked via the signal from a VHF tag attached to the dorsal fin.) About a month later, he arrived in Norway's Skålvik Fjord, apparently seeking contact with human beings and allowing children to ride on his back. His caretakers relocated to Norway and continued to conduct boat-follows with Keiko for the next 15 months. On the basis of girth measurements and blood tests, it was assumed that Keiko had fed during his 900-mile (1500 km) journey to Norway from Iceland. Keiko occasionally approached groups of wild killer whales, but remained on the periphery, at distances of 100–300 meters, with his head pointing toward the closest orca.
Keiko died in Taknes Bay, Arasvikfjord, Norway, while swimming in the fjords on December 12, 2003, at about 27 years of age. Pneumonia was determined as his probable cause of death.
