The story of Keiko, the orca from “Free Willy”, who after living in captivity returned to the ocean

The movie Free Willy was released 26 years ago, in July 1993. The main protagonist, as many people will remember, was not an actor or an actress, but an orca, Willy, called, in the real world, Keiko. The story is that of a whale that is the attraction of a water park, but, thanks to his friendship with a boy named Jesse (played by Jason James Richer), manages to return to the ocean. A moving script that won the hearts of many people.

And since life imitates art, Keiko (which in Japanese means “lucky”) got lucky. After the film was shown, Warner Bros, the producer of the feature, began to receive thousands of letters from children asking for his release and the whale was finally released. But Keiko’s story had a very different ending than her character, Willy.

Today the awesome.club brings the impressive story of Keiko, the only whale to be freed after having spent years working in aquariums.

Orcas, also known as “killer whales”, are the largest members of the family. Delphinidae (the same as dolphins), which is found in all the oceans of the Planet. They are known for maintaining strong ties with their family, having a complex social structure and the fact that most spend their entire lives in the same group of individuals: some spend their entire lives with their mothers. In the wild, females can live up to 90 years, while males can live up to 60.

In 1979, Keiko, a two-year-old male orca, was captured while eating with his family off the coast of Iceland and sold to a local aquarium. At that age, Keiko was considered a pack-dependent cub and was just learning to hunt, lacking many useful survival skills.

After a few years in Iceland, Keiko was bought by the Marineland aquarium and sent to Ontario, Canada, where she was supposed to perform daily in a show. It is believed that, due to her size and being male, Keiko was persecuted and rejected by older female orcas, which caused her stress and diminished her performance in the shows. For that reason, in 1985, it was sold again, now for $300,000 to the Reino Aventura theme park in Mexico City (now called Six Flags).

The conditions in their new home weren’t the best for an orca. Forced to swim in a pool designed for dolphins, which was only 3.6 meters deep, her dorsal fin drooped, her tail almost touched the bottom and she could only swim in circles.

Accustomed to the icy waters of the North Atlantic, Keiko also suffered from constant exposure to temperatures far above what her species normally tolerates in the wild. in the documentary Keiko, the untold story, Free Willy-Keiko Foundation Director Mark Berman detailed the condition of the tank: “They filled it with tap water, which contained a lot of chlorine. Also, there were no coolers. Orcas live in temperatures of 4 to 10 °C. To simulate ocean waters, the park team used bags of salt that were poured into the tank, but that left a lot to be desired, as seawater has many other nutrients and components besides salt.”

Over 11 years in a tank with no condition to house her, Keiko began to have health problems. She lost weight and, due to inadequate water composition, developed skin lesions.

In 1992, producers at Warner Bros. were looking for a lone orca to star in the movie Free Willy. And Keiko ended up taking on the role.

The film was a huge success and captivated the audience, who began to wonder about the orca’s living conditions in real life. Children from all over the world began to send letters asking for Keiko’s well-being and requesting that she too be released. Some fans even sent money to help the whale, thinking about its release and adaptation to wildlife.

After the movie premiered and thanks to thousands of letters sent by children, Warner Bros. Studios has partnered with US NGO Earth Island to remove Keiko from captivity and rehabilitate her for return to her natural habitat.

Warner Bros., the Humane Society (another NGO) and mobile phone billionaire Craig McCaw have teamed up to build a $7.3 million rehab tank at an aquarium off the coast of Oregon. The space would be 4 times larger than the one he lived in in Mexico.

In 1992, Keiko arrived at her new pool, which contained only real seawater, something she had not been able to experience since being captured in 1979. Keiko also began the process of learning to eat live fish. Their trainers, in addition, placed a television in front of the whale with images and the sound of orcas, with the intention that it would become familiar with the species itself, since since its stay in Canada, years before, it had not had no contact with other orcas.

In Oregon, Keiko also learned to hold her breath underwater longer. While in Mexico, she did so for just two minutes, a very short period of time for any whale. In addition, thanks to the depth of the tanks, Keiko began to perform higher jumps than he could do in Mexico.

In 1998, the team of experts leading the project concluded that Keiko was already in excellent health and would be transferred to the waters of her home in Iceland to continue her rehabilitation. On 9 September, she was transported in an army Boeing C-17 cargo plane to Klettsvik Bay in Vestmannaeyjar (Iceland), the same bay where she had been captured in 1979.

In the bay, the team created a kind of artificial coral fence to continue with the rehabilitation. She was taught to follow the boat her trainers sailed and to ignore everyone else. Keiko began taking “walks” with her team outside of the choir where she swam. She also underwent training to increase her confidence level and start hunting and feeding on her own and relying less on her human caretakers.

In 2001, the coaches opened the choir so that Keiko could come and go as she pleased. But despite having the opportunity to venture out on her own, she always returned to the bay. The team took Keiko on walks near pods of orcas to see if she could interact. And although she showed some interest, she didn’t fit in with the group.

Its tracking device, located on its dorsal fin, allowed scientists to follow the animal’s movements at all times. In the summer of 2002, Keiko began her journey across the open sea. For five weeks, the team monitored the whale, spending time with other wild orcas and hunting alone. Keiko traveled approximately 1,000 kilometers to reach Norway.

Keiko and her team of caregivers settled in Tarknes Bay in the Nordic country. But, even in freedom and being able to come and go as she pleased, Keiko continued to prefer the company of humans and maintained a special relationship with her trainers. in the documentary Keiko: The Untold Story of the Star of Free Willy, project director in Iceland, Colin Baird, explained that, on several occasions, tourists would enter the water to swim with the orca, until the Norwegian government banned it. Baird also commented that the team wished Keiko didn’t rely so much on them. So the coaches tried to keep their distance. The point is, when the whale saw them, it swam happily to where they were.

After contracting a cold, Keiko became apathetic. And on December 12, 2003, her caregivers found her lifeless body in the bay. It was concluded that her cause of death was pneumonia. Keiko was buried in land on the edge of a Norwegian fjord. At 27 years old, Keiko has lived much longer than estimated for captive orcas.

And even though he was unable to rejoin a group of orcas, his trainers ended the story with a sense of accomplishment. After all, the whale was released and was able to live happily for five long years in the waters of its home, Iceland.

Did you know the true story of the star of free Willy🇧🇷 Do you believe these animals and dolphins can be displayed in aquatic shows? Or do you consider it cruel? Comment!