Keiko (orca)
Encyclopedia
Keiko was a male orca
/ actor who starred in the film Free Willy
and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas
.
, was captured near Iceland
in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður
. Three years later he was sold to Marineland
in Ontario
where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesion
s indicative of poor health. He was then sold to Reino Aventura
(now named Six Flags Mexico
), an amusement park
in Mexico City, in 1985. He was the star of the movie Free Willy
in 1993.
The publicity from his role in Free Willy led to an effort by Warner Brothers Studio
to find him a better home. Donations from the studio and Craig McCaw
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
in Newport, Oregon
spent over $7 million to construct facilities to return him to health with the hope of returning him to the wild. UPS
provided ground transportation to the nearby Newport Municipal Airport
in a specialized container. Weighing 3500 kg (7720 pounds), he was transported by air in a United States Air Force
C-17 Globemaster III
to his new home on January 7, 1996. During his years in Oregon his weight increased over a ton
.
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 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. Nevertheless, the process of preparing Keiko for the wild began on September 9 , 1998, when he was flown to Klettsvik Bay on the island of Heimaey
in Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland. Upon landing, the C-17 Globemaster aircraft suffered a landing gear failure causing over $1 million in damage, though Keiko was unharmed.
His day-to-day care became the responsibility of the Ocean Futures Society. He underwent training designed to prepare him for his eventual release, including supervised swims in the open ocean.
During one of these "walks" his trainers lost track of Keiko in the open ocean off Iceland on July 11, 2002, and were unable to locate him with the satellite tracking device attached to his dorsal fin
. Keiko was finally spotted 870 miles (1,400.1 km) away off the coast of Norway. In September, he followed a fishing boat to Halsa
in Norway where he allowed fans to play with him and crawl over his back. Local marine biologists found him hungry and having lost weight during his stay in the North Atlantic. Several days later his handlers arrived and soon thereafter enticed him to nearby Taknes Bay, hoping to discourage his interaction with humans. They hoped a passing pod of orcas would "adopt" Keiko and lead him back to the open ocean, but the pod never appeared, forcing his trainers to continue to feed and care for Keiko.
while under the care of personnel from Jean-Michel Cousteau
's Ocean Futures Society on December 12, 2003, at about 27 years of age. Pneumonia was later determined as his probable cause of death. Following requests from fans of the orca and Free Willy, the Oregon Coast Aquarium
held a memorial service for him on February 20, 2004. 700 people attended the service, during which Thomas Chatterton, a veterinary chaplain said, "Keiko was not one of our kind but nonetheless, was still one of us."
There is a memorial site for Keiko set up by the locals in Halsa
, Norway. Norwegian school children built a cairn
of stones to mark the spot where he is buried.
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
/ actor who starred in the film Free Willy
Free Willy
Free Willy is a 1993 family film directed by Simon Wincer, and released by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label. The film stars Jason James Richter as a young boy who befriends an orca whale, named "Willy."...
and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas
Captive orcas
Captive orcas, or killer whales, are large predatory marine mammals that were first captured live and displayed in exhibitions in the 1960s, and soon became popular attractions at public aquariums and aquatic theme parks due to their intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in...
.
History
Keiko, whose name means "lucky one" in the Japanese languageJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, was captured near Iceland
Whaling in Iceland
Whaling in Iceland began with spear-drift whaling which was practiced from as early as the 12th century and continued in a relic form until the late 19th century...
in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður
Hafnarfjörður
Hafnarfjörður is a port town and municipality located on the south-west coast of Iceland, about 10 km south of Reykjavík....
. Three years later he was sold to Marineland
Marineland (Ontario)
Marineland is a themed amusement and animal exhibition park in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada...
in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesion
Lesion
A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...
s indicative of poor health. He was then sold to Reino Aventura
Reino Aventura
Reino Aventura was an amusement park located in Tlalpan in the south-western part of Mexico City. It opened to the public in March 1982 as the biggest amusement park in Latin America.-History:...
(now named Six Flags Mexico
Six Flags México
Six Flags México is an amusement park owned by Six Flags Inc. and the only Six Flags park operating in Latin America. It is located in the Tlalpan forest and borough, on the southern edge of Mexico City, Mexico. Six Flags México has become one of the most important theme parks in Mexico and the...
), an amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
in Mexico City, in 1985. He was the star of the movie Free Willy
Free Willy
Free Willy is a 1993 family film directed by Simon Wincer, and released by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label. The film stars Jason James Richter as a young boy who befriends an orca whale, named "Willy."...
in 1993.
The publicity from his role in Free Willy led to an effort by Warner Brothers Studio
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to find him a better home. Donations from the studio and Craig McCaw
Craig McCaw
Craig McCaw is a Seattle-area businessman and entrepreneur who achieved success as a pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is the founder of McCaw Cellular and Clearwire Corporation.-Early life and cable TV beginnings:Craig is the second of four sons of Marion and John Elroy McCaw...
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
Oregon Coast Aquarium
The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1992, the facility sits on along Yaquina Bay near the Pacific Ocean. From January 1996 until September 9, 1998 when he was shipped to Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland this aquarium was home to Keiko, the orca who...
in Newport, Oregon
Newport, Oregon
Newport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. It was incorporated in 1882, though the name dates back to the establishment of a post office in 1868...
spent over $7 million to construct facilities to return him to health with the hope of returning him to the wild. UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
provided ground transportation to the nearby Newport Municipal Airport
Newport Municipal Airport (Oregon)
Newport Municipal Airport , is a public airport located three miles south of the city of Newport in Lincoln County, Oregon, USA....
in a specialized container. Weighing 3500 kg (7720 pounds), he was transported by air in a United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
C-17 Globemaster III
C-17 Globemaster III
The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas, the C-17 is used for rapid strategic airlift of troops and cargo to main operating bases or forward operating bases throughout...
to his new home on January 7, 1996. During his years in Oregon his weight increased over a ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
.
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 misguided. The Norwegian pro-whaling politician Steinar Bastesen
Steinar Bastesen
Steinar Bastesen , is a Norwegian politician. A former fisher and whaler, Bastesen was first elected to the Norwegian Storting in 1997 as an independent candidate. In 1999, he participated in forming the Coastal Party, or Kystpartiet, a political party in Norway...
made international news for his statement that Keiko should instead be killed and the meat sent to Africa as foreign aid. Nevertheless, the process of preparing Keiko for the wild began on September 9 , 1998, when he was flown to Klettsvik Bay on the island of Heimaey
Heimaey
Heimaey , literally Home Island, is an Icelandic island. At a size of 13.4 km² , it is the largest island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, and the largest and most populated Icelandic island outside the main island of Iceland. Heimaey lies approximately 4 nautical miles off the south coast...
in Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland. Upon landing, the C-17 Globemaster aircraft suffered a landing gear failure causing over $1 million in damage, though Keiko was unharmed.
His day-to-day care became the responsibility of the Ocean Futures Society. He underwent training designed to prepare him for his eventual release, including supervised swims in the open ocean.
During one of these "walks" his trainers lost track of Keiko in the open ocean off Iceland on July 11, 2002, and were unable to locate him with the satellite tracking device attached to his dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
. Keiko was finally spotted 870 miles (1,400.1 km) away off the coast of Norway. In September, he followed a fishing boat to Halsa
Halsa
Halsa is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre of Halsa is the village of Liabøen. Other villages in the municipality include Halsanaustan, Valsøyfjord, Engan, Hjellnes, and Valsøybotnen.-General information:Halsa was...
in Norway where he allowed fans to play with him and crawl over his back. Local marine biologists found him hungry and having lost weight during his stay in the North Atlantic. Several days later his handlers arrived and soon thereafter enticed him to nearby Taknes Bay, hoping to discourage his interaction with humans. They hoped a passing pod of orcas would "adopt" Keiko and lead him back to the open ocean, but the pod never appeared, forcing his trainers to continue to feed and care for Keiko.
Death
Keiko died after beaching himself in Taknes Bay, NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
while under the care of personnel from Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau is a French explorer, environmentalist, educator, and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Celine Cousteau.-Biography:...
's Ocean Futures Society on December 12, 2003, at about 27 years of age. Pneumonia was later determined as his probable cause of death. Following requests from fans of the orca and Free Willy, the Oregon Coast Aquarium
Oregon Coast Aquarium
The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1992, the facility sits on along Yaquina Bay near the Pacific Ocean. From January 1996 until September 9, 1998 when he was shipped to Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland this aquarium was home to Keiko, the orca who...
held a memorial service for him on February 20, 2004. 700 people attended the service, during which Thomas Chatterton, a veterinary chaplain said, "Keiko was not one of our kind but nonetheless, was still one of us."
There is a memorial site for Keiko set up by the locals in Halsa
Halsa
Halsa is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre of Halsa is the village of Liabøen. Other villages in the municipality include Halsanaustan, Valsøyfjord, Engan, Hjellnes, and Valsøybotnen.-General information:Halsa was...
, Norway. Norwegian school children built a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
of stones to mark the spot where he is buried.
Filmography
- Keiko en peligro (1990)...Keiko
- Free WillyFree WillyFree Willy is a 1993 family film directed by Simon Wincer, and released by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label. The film stars Jason James Richter as a young boy who befriends an orca whale, named "Willy."...
(1993)...Willy - Free Willy 2 (1995)... Willy
- Free Willy 3 (1997)... Willy
Soap operas
- Azul (1996)...Keiko (Mexican soap opera)
- Quinceañera (1987)...Orca (Final episode. Mexican soap opera)