Keiko, a Genus Orca whale, was born in 1976 and captured off the coast
of Iceland in 1979. He was sold to the marine park industry, and in
1985 he arrived to Reino Aventura in Mexico City where and lived a
normal life for a captive whale until 1993. In that year, he was cast
as "Willy" in the movie "Free Willy," capturing the hearts of millions
of children and adults worldwide. Afterwards, Life magazine made an
article where it showed of the horrible conditions in in which he lived
in Reino Aventura so an international pledge was started, and enough
money was raised to have him sent to the Oregon Coast Aquarium; before
being airlifted back to Iceland in 1998 to prepare him for a return to
the wild.
He was trained to survive in the wild and released in July of 2002, but
he longed for human contact. He swam 870 miles; eventually ending up in
Helsa, Norway in September of 2002, where local residents played with
him often; so much so that animal protection authorities banned anyone
from approaching him. He was looked after by whale keepers for the last
year of life, suddenly coming down with pneumonia on December 10, 2003.
He died a day later.
