Keiko was underweight for his size, and the water temperature was often too warm, which contributed to various skin problems. He was housed with bottlenose dolphins, but no others of his own species. The pool for the now 21-foot-long (6.4 m) orca was only 22 feet (6.7 m) deep, 65 feet (20 m) wide and 114 feet (35 m) long. The publicity from his role led to an effort by Warner Bros. Keiko became the star of the film Free Willy in 1993.

Īt the time, he was only 10 feet (3.0 m) long and was housed in a tank intended for bottlenose dolphins. Keiko was then sold to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1985.Īt Reino Aventura, he was given the name ' Keiko', a feminine Japanese name that means 'lucky one'. 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. In 1982, he was sold to Marineland in Ontario, Canada. At the time, he was named Siggi, with the name Kago given at a later date. Keiko was captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 at the approximate age of two and sold to the Icelandic Aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. On 12 December 2003, he died of pneumonia in a bay in Norway at the age of 27. After years of preparing Keiko for reintegration, Keiko was flown to Iceland in 1998 and in 2002, became the first captive orca to be fully released back into the ocean. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild. He portrayed Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. 24 September 1976 – 12 December 2003) was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979.

Free willy 2 swim scene film location