Not so 'Free willy'!!!

Keiko, the orca whale was a big star in the movie Free Willy, and became the first captive orca to be released back into the wild.

Keiko was born in 1977/1978 in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland. He was torn from his family at the age of 2, where he was captured by a fishing boat. In 1982 Marineland in Ontario, Canada bought him where he became a performing animal. In 1985 Marineland sold Keiko to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City for $350,000. He spent the next 14 years of his life performing for audiences while living in a pool that made for Bottlenose Dolphins. The pool was unequipped to cool it to temperatures suitable for Orcas, so Keiko developed a skin disease and no other aquarium would now accept him. In the year 1993 Keiko starred in the hit movie ‘Free Willy’, which led to the controversy of his living conditions in the amusement park. This controversy led to the founding of the Free Willy-Keiko foundation which raised millions of dollars to relocate Keiko, but during this time Keiko’s health began to deteriorate. An advocacy group for marine wildlife called the Earth Island institute began to research how to nurse Keiko back to health and return him to the wild. In 1996 the United States Services (UPS) donated a plane to airlift the 7,720 pound whale to Oregon Coast Aquarium. Keiko swam in natural sea water for the first time in 14 years. From the years 1996-1997 the staff worked on getting Keiko to normal health and began it teach him how to hunt for live fish. Keiko gained nearly 2000 pounds and hi skin condition disappeared. In 1998 Keiko was ready to move to a pen in the North Atlantic. On September 9, he was airlifted by the U.S. Air Force to an island near Iceland. In the early months of 1999 Keiko was released back into his native waters and was under the watchful eye of the Ocean Futures Society who continued to train Keiko on how to be a killer whale. In the year 2000 a tracking device was placed on the Orca so his caretakers could watch out for him in the open sea. Keiko was making good progress and began to interact with wild Orcas. In 2001 Keiko was beginning to spend several days in a row out in the ocean with other whales. Keiko looked physically well when he returned and staff were pleased, it proved to them that he could compete for food with wild Orcas. A year later he was spending weeks at a time away from is caretakers. He spent 50 days without returning to the staff for food and covered 1,000 miles. On December 12, 2003 The Free Willy-keiko Foundation reported that Keiko was under the care of a veterinarian because he showed signs of lethargy. In the early evening Keiko swam to a beach where he died of acute pneumonia. Keiko was the second oldest male Orca to have ever been in captivity.

More than a decade later and many people are still debating whether Keikos return to the wild was a success. Critics say the entire project was a waste of money and cruel to Keiko, who should have never been allowed to swim by himself in the ocean, they say he died alone and prematurely both of which are not true. He had three loving caretakers by his side and he passed at the age of approximately 26, close to the average life expectancy of 30 for male killer whales in the wild and among the oldest captive male killer whales ever.

Although there are many criticisms of whether Keikos release to the wild was a success or not, the clearest thing to me is that the capturing of Orcas shouldn’t be allowed, Keiko was snatched from his family at a young age, placed in a rotten pool and forced to entertain for the pleasure of Humans. Although the mission was not a huge success, Keiko should have never been taking form his natural habitat, and he deserved a chance to life a ‘normal’ free life. In the end Keiko was able to hunt independently and did not need to rely on his Human caretakers to feed him, he head began to learn typical traits of a wild Orca, but unfortunately he was taken ill and passed away, but at least his last few years were in his natural habitat were he belonged and he was able to experience what life for a ‘real’ orca was like. The moral of the story is that wild marine animals (or any wild animal) shouldn’t be taken from their natural habitat and locked in small enclosures for the entertainment of Humans, if only Keiko was left with his family when he was 2 years old, he wouldn’t of had to be reintroduced into the wild again after many years of his life spent in overly small enclosures, where he suffered from diseases, those who tried to reintroduce him into the wild where trying to help him to stop him from suffering, there aim was to help Keiko to give him the life he deserved.

WILD ANIMALS BELONG IN THE WILD NOT IN OVERLY SMALL ENCLOSURES!!!