Whale ‘Willy’ Takes Big Step to Being Free

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Keiko, the killer whale star of the “Free Willy” movies, swam out of his pen into the enclosed waters of a remote Icelandic bay Friday to the delight of a nature group preparing him for a return to the wild.

The 5-ton whale poked his nose through an underwater cage and moved into another pool where he will have medical tests.

But the netting closing off the pool has been removed, allowing the black and white orca to roam an enclosed area of Klettsvik Bay in the Westman Islands off Iceland’s south coast. The area is about 22 times bigger than his current home.

“It’s been just a terrific day. Everything that we had hoped would happen has actually occurred,” Charles Vinick, executive vice president of Ocean Futures, which is rehabilitating Keiko, said by phone from Klettsvik Bay.

The bay enclosure will be a halfway house for Keiko before he is released into the sea, possibly later this year, and will allow him to experience an ocean environment for the first time since his capture off Iceland more than 20 years ago.

It is the first attempt to reintroduce a killer whale to the wild.

After a few tentative ventures into the bay, Keiko struck out, swimming 150 yards and moving around the bay under a blue sky in bright winter sunshine. Fans can follow his progress on the Internet at https://www.oceanfutures.org.