Keiko, the Untold Story movie available for $5 online

You can rent it on Vimeo for $5. I think it came out in 2010 and was just made available online a few days ago.

http://vimeo.com/ondemand/keikotheuntoldstory2013/57745061

This is a very uplifting movie on Keiko's journey after being transported from the aquarium in Oregon to his homeland in Iceland, from sea-pen to open ocean. It is a great companion piece to Blackfish because it shows the possibilities for rehabilitating a killer whale, if not to total freedom, then a much more happy life in a sheltered part of the ocean, in a sea-pen.

I was looking at dates, and the movie Free Willy which starred Keiko came out in 1993. And so the children who responded so deeply and started the Free Willy campaign are in their 20s and 30s now.

The maker of the movie is a musician who was inspired by Keiko to write some music about him which grew and grew until she was making a feature length film. She got help from the Free Willy Foundation and Naomi Rose, a marine mammal biologist who works for the Humane Society. Here is an informal discussion on the making of the film.





Obituary on Keiko by Naomi Rose, marine mammal biologist, Humane Society

Keiko's Sudden Exit from the Limelight Caps a Long, Strange Trip -- By
Naomi Rose

December 2003, Humane Society of US

Keiko's journey ended on Friday, December 12, 2003. What a long, strange
trip it must have been for him.

Born in the North Atlantic off Iceland, torn from his mother's side
while still no more than an infant, sent first to a nearby tank, then
to one in Canada, then to yet another in Mexico, all within a few
years. He lived in an amusement park for eight difficult years, in a
tank too small and too warm, with only the occasional dolphin
companion. Then suddenly—movie stardom! He starred in Free Willy,
became famous. After almost a decade of resignation to his fate in
Mexico, he was rescued and transported to unimagined luxury for him—a
far larger tank in Oregon, with natural, cold seawater from a local bay.

Then, from the Pacific Northwest, Keiko returned full circle: to a
large bay in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, with puffins and the occasional
seal to visit, in the clean, cold waters where he was born. Within two
years, he was taking open-ocean "walks" with his human caretakers,
exploring the craggy shorelines of the islands off Iceland's south
coast. Each year after that, he became more independent, at first
hesitant to make contact with the local wild orcas, but becoming more
and more curious and confident. From a lonely, broken whale in a
semi-tropical climate wholly foreign to him, he was once again in the
vast northern wild of his birth, robust, adventurous, alive.

How adventurous? Last year, he spent more time than ever in the
company of his wild brethren, in many ways wild himself. On his
"walks" in Iceland, he was free to leave or stay. And leave he
did—taking off across the open waters separating Iceland from the rest
of Scandinavia, swimming steadily for at least five weeks, almost
certainly feeding himself, without human contact.

What must he have thought, in those immensely wide spaces? Following
the mackerel, hearing the whistles of dolphins and the booming of
sperm whales for the first time in years? Was he frightened? Perhaps a
little, as one is when one first leaves the comfort of the familiar
for the unknown of "real life." But he kept his head, and he steered
true and came at last to another shore, in Norway.

In his final months in Taknes, he was free to come and go as he
pleased. He explored his surroundings, interacted with his human
caretakers, mugged for the occasional camera, even chased birds and
fish. He breathed clean sub-arctic air, watched the days grow shorter
and then longer again, felt the fury of storms and the joy of a
boisterous breach, with no walls confining him.

He lived longer than almost any other male orca ever has in captivity.
He lived at least as long as most male orcas do in the wild. He died
as many might wish to die—suddenly, with little warning, happy and
free and among friends.

What a long, strange, amazing trip Keiko took. We will miss him.

Dr. Naomi Rose is the marine mammal scientist for The HSUS.

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/keikoinfo/conversations/topics/1517