Halsa, Norway — Keiko, the killer whale of Free Willy movie fame, set off Thursday for his new winter home in a remote Norwegian bay that his trainers hope will attract more wildlife and fewer people.

His keepers had kept the move, about a 90-minute swim, secret until the last minute, hoping to avoid the publicity that has surrounded the orca since he swam to a Norwegian fjord from his release off the coast of Iceland after nearly 23 years in captivity.

The movie-star whale, believed to be about 25, swam alongside the blue boat leading him to his new home, waving his distinctly curved dorsal fin, responding to hand signals from a trainer and snapping up fish thrown to him.

Keiko's stardom in the three films about a boy who befriends a whale sparked a $2031illion (Canadian) campaign in the mid-1990s to retrain the killer whale for life in the wild, but he ended up in the western Skaalvik fjord in early September and has shown no inclination to leave.

The head of the Humane Society of the United States, Paul Irwin, who was on the boat stacked with boxes of frozen herring, said the goal was still for Keiko to return to the wild but the whale was likely to seek the best of both worlds.

"He is at liberty to do as he chooses," Mr. Irwin said. "The most predictable future for Keiko is in fact for him to interact with wild orcas while continuing to maintain a way station relationship with his handlers."

The surprise arrival of Keiko, whose name means "lucky one" in Japanese, in early September was one of the biggest things to ever happen in Halsa, a village of about 1,800 people that has now adopted the slogan "Do like Keiko. Pick Halsa."

Norwegians quickly warmed to the 25-year-old, people-loving orca, who allowed his admirers to swim with him, pet him and even climb on his back until local animal protection authorities imposed a ban on going closer to him than 50 metres.

Colin Baird, the Canadian who is Keiko's trainer, and Norwegian fisheries officials spent weeks seeking the perfect winter home for the whale before settling on nearby Taknex Bay, where fishing grounds are rich and wild orcas are thought to be plentiful.

It is just 10 kilometres from Skaalvik fjord and still in Halsa township.

Mr. Baird said the new location is more remote and harder to reach, which will minimize crowds, and the water does not freeze in the winter, so they can lead Keiko out into the ocean to meet wild orcas that normally pass by in January.

The 36-year-old Canadian and his colleagues haven't given up hope that Keiko will eventually choose his own kind, but they are ready to continue caring for him should that fail.

Keiko had learned how to fish on his own, but he became so listless after arriving in Norway that his crew began feeding him up to 80 kilograms of herring per day and taking him on daily "walks" behind boats.

To get ready for the move, the Keiko team had to bring in a large dock, order and place buoys to mark his area, find boats and fix up an old house to use as a base.

Authorities in this Scandinavian nation of 4.5 million have endorsed the project, as long as Keiko is not penned in or captured, does not come in conflict with other maritime interests and is not commercially exploited.

Norway is the only country that hunts whales commercially, but the hunt is limited to minke whales while killer whales are a protected species.

The campaign to free Keiko, who was in captivity at an amusement park in Mexico City, began after he gained fame starring in the three Free Willy movies. The park donated the ailing Keiko to the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation.

He was transported for rehabilitation at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996, then airlifted to Iceland in 1998, where he was taught to catch live fish and released.