Free Orcas Wikie and Keijo

By Mark J. Palmer

Reprinted from Earth Island Journal Winter 2025

This orca mother-son duo deserves to live outside the confines of concrete tanks.

Wikie and her son Keijo have never known life beyond their tiny concrete holding tanks and connected water stadium in Marineland of Antibes, France, where they are forced to perform tricks for a paying audience. Born in captivity, the mother (age 23) and child (age 11), are the last remaining captive orcas in France.

In 2020, when France began implementing its ban on marine mammal captivity, there were four captive orcas still on display, all held at Marineland — Wikie, her brother, Inouk, and her two sons, Keijo and Moana. Sadly, Moana and Inouk died of health issues over the past two years. Originally, Marineland planned to transfer Wike and Keijo to the Kobe Suma Sea World park in Japan, where they would have spent the rest of their lives in even smaller tanks and miserable conditions. The would have also likely been separated and bred to produce more captive orcas for aquariums there. However, following intense pressure from animal rights activists and scientists, in late November, the French government announced that it would block this transfer. But this isn’t the end of the fight. The government is now exploring the possibility of sending the orcas to the Loro Parque captive orca and dolphin facility in Spain, another poor option.

Other, better choices are available. Earlier this year, the French government’s General Inspectorate of the Environment & Sustainable Development conducted a review of the best option for the two killer whales and recommended that that they should be relocated to a seaside sanctuary being built by the Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia. However, the final decision on the matter rests with France’s Ministry of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention.

That is why the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) has launched a campaign to get the French government to mandate that the country’s last two captive orcas be relocated to the Nova Scotia sanctuary as soon as possible. The Earth Island project is working with other international organizations, activists, and experts, including Jean Michel-Cousteau, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and Dr. Jane Goodall, to urge the French government to block the export of Wikie and Keijo to Japan or Spain, and to spread the word about the plight of the two orcas.

“The whole purpose of the French law prohibiting display of whales and dolphins is that captivity fails to meet animal welfare standards,” says IMMP’s Executive Director Dave Phillips.

Nearly two decades ago, IMMP planned and orchestrated the first-ever release of a captive orca. After the family film Free Willy premiered in 1993, the letters, calls, and advocacy of millions of moviegoers — especially children — helped IMMP rehabilitate and free Keiko, the real-life orca at the center of the movie. Keiko’s story sparked a dramatic change in public attitude toward whale captivity and has even been beautifully recounted in a brand new six-part -podcast “The Good Whale,” produced by The New York Times and Serial Productions.

As Phillips stated in one of the podcast episodes: “Keiko is a trailblazer, and his life story is propelling efforts to free whales around the globe right now.” IMMP is working hard right now to ensure that Keiko’s legacy lives on, and that Wiki and Keijo get to live out the rest of their lives together, outside the confines of concrete tanks.

What You Can Do

Sign the online petition to the French government to free Wikie and Keijo at: keikoproject.org

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Your donations provide Wikie and her son Keijo a chance to be retired to a seaside sanctuary, instead of performing rote tricks day after day. They are kept hungry in order to ensure they will do the tricks. No tricks, no treats. This is unconscionable, but common in dolphinariums around the world. Please help Wikie and Keijo with a donation today. Thank you!