Freeing Orca's

Do you remember the Orca whale named Kieko who became famous from the movie "Free Willy"? Did you ever follow any of the stories that told of his life and how he came into the movie world or Did you know that Kieko lived in Mexico City, where he was not adequately cared for in an aquarium to small for him?

The film "Free Willy" plot is about a young boy who saves a killer whale from an immoral marine park owner and after the films release, there began such an outcry to help Keiko become free. The outcry came from all over the world to free Kieko. Kieko was sponsored and sent to the Oregon Coast Aquarium to regaining his strength because for the first time in history, Kieko, was going to be the first Orca released back into the wild. This was a step to free our hearts and minds of wrong doing to such a magnificent animal but was freeing a long time captive Orca the right thing to do? He was caught between the ages of 1 to 2 years old and remained captive for 25 years.

Orca whales that have spent most of their lives in captivity with human care, contact and training should not be candidates for re-introduction to wild habitats because they are not able to fully survive without human contact or care.

Captive Orcas that are released into the wild are in danger because they have lived with human contact and will look to humans for socializing and this could pose many problems for them.

This was the case with Kieko. After he was release in his homeland, Iceland, he encountered many boats and seemed to enjoy the pats and interaction from people. We must take into consideration that for over twenty years he was held captive and relied on humans for food, training and interactions. To him they were like his family.

Orcas live in large groups called pods often in tight family units. Released Orca whales do not have pods in which they can just enter and be accepted because of these tight family units that have formed since the Orcas birth. Kieko was introduced to his family line but was still not fully accepted by the pod and most of the time he spent his days alone.