The Good Whale in Iceland & Update on Wikie & Keijo

Hello listeners,

In Episode 3 of “The Good Whale,” Keiko goes home. Or at least back to where he came from: Iceland. To appreciate what that meant for him — the magnitude of this change — picture, for a moment, his artificial pool in Mexico City. Then imagine his bigger tank in Oregon, where people could gather at the underwater windows. Now, look at Iceland.

This is Heimaey, a remote island part of a volcanic archipelago off Iceland’s southern coast. That oval you see tucked into the cove is Keiko’s new pen. The setting looks placid, but more often than not the wind kicked up fiercely in this cove. Keiko’s pen was designed to withstand the rough weather; the walls were made of permeable nylon netting, and the whole thing was tethered to the sea floor. Here’s a closer look:

The pen was about two-thirds the size of a football field — considerably bigger than his Oregon tank. But that, of course, wasn’t the only change for Keiko. He was back in the ocean. He hadn’t experienced the ocean since he was a calf swimming in his mother’s slipstream. He could feel movement in the water differently now, waves and currents and tides. And sound reached him in a new way. He wasn’t bombarded with noises echoing off the walls of a pool or a tank; now Keiko could make out the individual sounds of the different animals around him and figure out which direction they were coming from.

Once he was acclimated, Keiko’s trainers managed to get him to ignore all boats but one: the Draupnir, which they called the “walk boat.” To reach it, Keiko would swim out of the sea pen through a gate. Attached to one side of the Draupnir was a special platform from which the trainers could feed and guide Keiko.

Their hope was that eventually Keiko would follow the Draupnir out of Heimaey’s cozy cove into the open ocean — and join up with a pod of wild whales.

Want to listen to all six episodes? Eligible New York Times subscribers can listen to the whole series, right now, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Learn more at nytimes.com/podcasts.

UPDATE: Fate of the Last Two Captive Orcas in France, Wikie & Keijo

In the coming days, the French government will have to make a decision determining the fate of the last two captive orcas in France.

Wikie and her son Keijo are currently being held at Marineland d’Antibes. After a lifetime of living in cramped concrete tanks, performing tricks for humans, they may be given a chance to retire to a spacious sea sanctuary in Nova Scotia, in natural seawater and be able to stay together as mother and son.

Or, if the French government does not adopt their own Inspector General's recommendation that Wikie and Keijo be relocated to the Whale Sanctuary Project’s facility in Nova Scotia, then they will likely be transferred to a Japanese or Spanish aquarium. This would be a cruel choice. The concrete tanks they would move to are even smaller than their current confines. Wiki and Keijo would end up in a forced breeding program, possibly separated from each other, and spend the rest of their lives in a country with inadequate cetacean welfare protections.

Currently there is a French court order preventing the relocation of these two orcas at this time because they lack veterinary evaluations assessing their health. Marineland Antibes has petitioned the court to lift the current court order. If the order is lifted, Marineland could ignore the Inspector General's recommendation and send the two orcas to a Japanese aquarium tank unless the French government steps in. The judge is expected to release his decision to either extend the export prohibition or lift it on December 5th. No word on when the French government will make a final decision.

IMMP continues months of advocacy, mobilizing international support urging the French government to relocate Wikie and her son Keijo to a seaside sanctuary.

Q&A by David Phillips

Sign our petition to free French captive orcas Wikie and her son Keijo

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Wikie and Keijo, and other captive whales and dolphins around the world, need your support! Please donate to the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) to help free mother and son orcas from dismal lives in concrete tanks. Hanging in the balance is the opportunity for them to be transferred to the Whale Sanctuary Project’s new seaside refuge in Nova Scotia, where the two orcas will no longer be forced to perform for the public. They will be fed and receive veterinary care, but will be able to swim in the broad waters of the sanctuary, feeling the tides and the wind, part of nature again. Thanks for donating today!