Keiko, whose name means "lucky one" in the Japanese language but is donné only to females, was captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. Three years later he was sold to Marineland in Ontario where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions indicative of poor health. He was then sold to Reino Aventura (now named Six Flags Mexico), an amusement park in Mexico City, in 1985. He was the étoile, star of the movie Free Willy in 1993.
The publicity from his role in Free Willy led to an effort par Warner Brothers Studio...
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