What type of whale was Free Willy?

Answer 1

Keiko, aka 'Free Willy,' dies...

Movie Star Killer Whale Keiko dies of Pneumonia.

A truly sad story here, but not the one you might think it is. Keiko the Killer Whale, star of the movie "Free Willy" has died.

Keiko was originally on display in a facility down in Mexico little better than a swimming pool. He was rented out for the production of Free Willy, where it became known what the state of his life was (not fun). That caught the public's attention, and there was a groundswell of support to "free Willy". Eventually, an aquarium in Oregon (the Newport Bay Aquarium in Newport, on the coast -- we've been there and it's a wonderful place to visit) arranged to take Keiko from Mexico, and through donations, built a wonderful new facility for him to the tune of about $2 million US.

But that wasn't good enough for some folks. While most experts in orcas felt that keiko was too habituated to humans to be re-introduced into the wild, the "Free Willy" concept continued and gathered steam. Eventually public pressure forced the issue, and it was agreed to try to rehabilitate keiko and reintroduce him into the wild.

This process started in 1998, and continued until 2002 when he was finally released from his special pen offshore of Iceland. Keiko immediately swam to Norway and emigrated to a small fishing village, where he more or less just hung out near the dock and begged for food.

All in all, about $20 million was spent on keiko's reintroduction to the wild, which was a total failure, a failure most experts knew was likely. It might seem worth trying anyway, as a heroic gesture, except...

Except if keiko had been left in his new home in Newport, he'd probably be alive, healthy and happy today -- happier than he was in Iceland or Norway, because Keiko had spent most of his life in captivity, and was simply too habituated to "go wild" again.

And that $20 million? Spent on one animal that happened to catch the public's attention? Orcas are increasingly threatened worldwide -- pugest sound populations are down almost 20% since 1996. Recent studies indicate a drastic loss of primary foods (especially seals) have hurt the whales, which are spending more and more time chasing less and less nutritional foods (such as otters), and there is some evidence that killer whales are primarily responsible for the dramatic losses in the sea otter population in some areas that have mystified scientists.

On top of this, killer whales are high on the food chain, which means pollutants concentrate in them, especially Mercury, and that seems to be causing fertility problems and other problems.

Much, however, is not known. While some of the money spent on keiko went to research useful with other whales, by anthropomorphizing Keiko, we did neither him or his species a favor -- because by spending that money on Keiko (which wasn't really about the whale, but was about absolving our societal guilt for capturing him in the first place), we took a pet (a large, wet pet, but still a pet) and stuck him back in an environment that was -- for him -- not natural and not pleasant. About as useful as sticking a cat in the middle of a forest: the cat's either going to starve or go feral and find civilization again to live off of. No amount of wishing makes them wild, or trains them to be wild.

And that is to me the sad subtext of the Keiko story: our oceans in general, and Orcas specifically, need help and there's a lot we don't know that we need to learn so we can protect the species and its environment. And that $20 million we spent trying to return Keiko to the wild could have been much better spent studying Orcas and looking for ways to help the species.

But we didn't do that. We were so busy "freeing Willy!" that we never stopped to ask whether Willy wanted to be free. it's clear he didn't. So we wasted money on a single animal that could have helped all of his relatives instead, mostly because it made us feel better, not because it was in Keiko's best interests.

And that's unfortunately typical of our culture. We get enthused in Grand Causes, as a certain pooh bear might say, and never stop to ask whether the cause really is the best thing to do. What was best for Keiko was for him to get out f that disaster in Mexico and allowed to finish his days in Newport. But instead, we had to "free" him, which he clearly didn't relish, and which ultimately, killed him.

But it was for his own good. And we sleep better at night knowing we Freed Willy, right?

Answer 2

Orca