After the movie was released, it brought the living conditions of the star orca, Keiko (Willy) to the world's attention. His tank was too small, with too-warm chlorinated artificial salt water. Keiko suffered from a weakened immune system and a skin condition around his pectoral fins. There was a monumental effort to release Keiko. A custom tank was built in the Oregon Coast Aquarium and in 1996, the whale was flown from Mexico to Oregon. He recovered well, and was moved to a sea pen in 1998. In July 2002, Keiko was released into the wild after spending 22 years in captivity. Unfortunately he did not fully adapt to the wild and died in December 2003 in Norway. Keiko became the second oldest orca to live in captivity.
Richard Donner came up with the idea of including the Earth Island Institute hotline in the end credits despite the studio's concern at first. After the release of the film, millions of moviegoers called the number where $20 million was donated for the Save the Whales Foundation.
Most close-up shots involving limited movement by Willy such as when he is in the trailer and the sequences of him swimming in the open water was a 20 foot animatronic whale. Walt Conti who supervised the effects of the orca estimated that half of the shots of the orca used animatronic stand-ins. He also stated that the smaller movements of a real orca made things difficult in some ways for him and his crew. So they had to concentrate on smaller nuances in order to make the characters seem alive.
The producers auditioned twenty three orcas for the role of Willy. Twenty one of them belonged to SeaWorld who declined the offer to have their orcas for movie work after they were unimpressed with the script's message. And at one point, they requested a new ending.
Keiko, the killer whale used in the film, died on Friday 12 December 2003 after the sudden onset of pneumonia in Arasvikfjord in Norway. The whale was 27 years old.
Willis Van Dusen: The then-Mayor of Astoria played a fish vendor at the fish market where Jesse goes to buy fish scraps.