Keiko's New Home
by Mark Berman
Int'l. Marine Mammal Project

If all goes according to plan, this September, Keiko will be relocated to a sea pen in the waters off Iceland. This will mark a major milestone in a venture that began in 1993 at the conclusion of the Warner Bros. movie "Free Willy." David Phillips, founder of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, calls this latest step "a dream come true for millions of people around the world who have worked to do the right thing for Keiko."

Keiko's new state-of-the-art ocean sea pen is nearing completion. Familian Industrial Plastics of Washougal, Washington, is fabricating the pen out of large, 30-inch pipe which, when finished, will be 250 feet long, 100 feet wide and more than 24 feet deep. The foam-filled connected pipes will be webbed with super-strong netting made of graphite and Kevlar to insure that, once anchored, the sea pen can withstand tides, currents and ice, as it floats in the North Atlantic.

This pen - which is more than four times larger than Keiko's tank at the Seacoast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon - will be flown to Iceland and re- assembled on site in preparation for Keiko's re-location of Keiko in September.

The center of the pen will have a 40-by-40-foot rubber-coated platform that will be attached to a large hoist for allowing staff to perform medical checkups. There will also be an office, dive locker, food preparation room and generator room. Cameras and hydrophones will be stationed at strategic points around the facility. Fiberglass-coated walkways will completely encircle the pen for easy access by rehabilitation staff.

This pen will allow the free flow of sea water and will allow Keiko to hear natural ocean sounds for the first time since his capture in 1979. Live fish will swim through the pen, allowing Keiko to advance his hunting skills. It is also hoped that wild orca pods will approach the pen, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to see how Keiko interacts with wild whales.

Earth Island Institute continues to play an instrumental role in the Foundation's work to rehabilitate and release cetaceans. Moving Keiko to the sea pen puts him a big step closer to becoming the first captive orca ever returned to the wild.

-- IMMP Program Associate Mark Berman campaigns for the protection of marine mammals worldwide.