Oceanic dolphins or Delphinidae are a widely distributed family of dolphins that live in the sea. Close to forty extant species are recognised. They include several big species whose common names contain "whale" rather than "dolphin", such as the Globicephalinae. Delphinidae is a family within the superfamily Delphinoidea, which also includes the porpoises (Phocoenidae) and the Monodontidae. River dolphins are relatives of the Delphinoidea.
Keiko was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979. He was best known for his portrayal of Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. In 1996, Warner Bros. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild. After years of being prepared for reintegration, Keiko was flown to Iceland in 1998 and in 2002, became the first captive orca to be fully released back into the ocean. On 12 December 2003, he died of pneumonia in a bay in Norway at the age of 27.
Free Willy is a 1993 American family drama film, directed by Simon Wincer, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jennie Lew Tugend, written by Keith A. Walker and Corey Blechman from a story by Walker and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures under their Family Entertainment imprint. The film stars Jason James Richter in his film debut, Lori Petty, Jayne Atkinson, August Schellenberg, and Michael Madsen with the eponymous character, Willy, played by Keiko.
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home is a 1995 American family adventure drama film directed by Dwight Little from a screenplay by Karen Janszen, Corey Blechman and John Mattson. It is the sequel to the 1993 film Free Willy and second installment in the Free Willy film series distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label. Jason James Richter, Jayne Atkinson, August Schellenberg, Michael Madsen and Mykelti Williamson reprise their roles from the first film. New cast members include Jon Tenney and Elizabeth Peña. Unlike the previous film where Keiko played Willy, a robotic double created by Edge Innovations was used to play the eponymous whale while the Free Willy Keiko Foundation devised a plan to bring Keiko to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where he would be rehabilitated from poor health, although Keiko did make an uncredited appearance, reprising his role as Willy through an archival clip shown in the film.
Terri Raines Irwin is an American-Australian conservationist, television personality, author and zookeeper who is the owner of Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland. She is the widow of Steve Irwin.
Pirate Islands is an Australian children's television program screened on Network Ten in 2003. A sequel called The Lost Treasure of Fiji premiered on Network Ten in 2007.
The 1992 cageless shark-diving expedition was the world's first recorded intentionally cageless dive with great white sharks, contributing to a change in public opinions about the supposed ferocity of these animals.
Ramu III was an Orca who resided at the now-defunct Windsor Safari Park in Berkshire, England between 1970 and 1976, and later, at SeaWorld San Diego in California between 1976 and 1986. An adult male, Ramu was caught on 8 August 1970, after his pod of eighty orcas was 'corralled' during the Penn Cove capture in Penn Cove, near Coupeville, Washington, United States. At capture, Ramu was 13.32 ft long and a member of the Southern Resident Killer Whales' L-pod. It is assumed his family members still survive in the Salish Sea and in nearby Pacific coastal waters.
Free Willy 3: The Rescue is a 1997 American family film directed by Sam Pillsbury and written by John Mattson. Released by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment banner, it is the sequel to Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home in addition to being the third film in the Free Willy franchise and final installment of the original storyline as well as the last to be released theatrically. Jason James Richter and August Schellenberg reprise their roles from the previous films while Annie Corley, Vincent Berry and Patrick Kilpatrick joined the cast. The story revolves around Jesse and Randolph attempting to stop a group of whalers, led by its ruthless captain, from illegally hunting Willy while secretly receiving help from an unlikely source involving the captain's young son after an accident changed his view on whales.
Stephen Robert Irwin, known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Bindi Sue Irwin is an Australian television personality, conservationist, zookeeper and actress. She is the elder of the two children of conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin and his conservationist wife, Terri Irwin, who owns the Australia Zoo. Bindi's younger brother is Robert, a television personality and photographer, and they are the grandchildren of naturalist and herpetologist Bob Irwin.
On 4 September 2006, Australian zookeeper, conservationist, and television programmer Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while filming in the Great Barrier Reef. The stingray's barb pierced his chest, penetrating his thoracic wall and heart, causing massive trauma. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of an underwater documentary Ocean's Deadliest. During a lull in filming caused by inclement weather, Irwin decided to snorkel in shallow waters while being filmed in an effort to provide footage for Bindi the Jungle Girl, his daughter Bindi's television programme.
The southern resident orcas, also known as the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), are the smallest of four communities of the exclusively fish-eating ecotype of orca in the northeast Pacific Ocean. The southern resident orcas form a closed society with no emigration or dispersal of individuals, and no gene flow with other orca populations. The fish-eating ecotype was historically given the name 'resident,' but other ecotypes named 'transient' and 'offshore' are also resident in the same area.
Free Willy is a media franchise from Warner Bros. that started with the 1993 film Free Willy that went on to become a sleeper hit at the box office. The original series primarily follows a street kid named Jesse who befriends an orca named Willy and eventually develops a strong connection. While trying to juggle his newly found life, he and Willy are challenged with overcoming or defeating various hazards to the ocean or Willy himself including corporate greed, hunters, poachers, and oil disasters.
The Gateway, also known as Curtains, is a 2015 horror film that was directed by Jaron Henrie-McCrea. The film had its world premiere on August 31, 2015, at Film4 FrightFest and stars Danni Smith and Tim Lueke as two activists that investigate a series of disappearing shower curtains in Smith's apartment.
Robert Clarence Irwin is an Australian conservationist, television personality, zookeeper, wildlife photographer and actor. He is the son of Steve Irwin, and is often noted by fans to share similarities with his late father. Irwin hosts Robert's Real Life Adventures, a program on his family zoo's internal television network. He co-hosted the Discovery Kids Channel television series Wild But True and co-created the book series Robert Irwin: Dinosaur Hunter. He starred on the Animal Planet series Crikey! It's the Irwins with his mother, Terri, and sister, Bindi, from 2018–2022.
