The organization, which hopes to build a facility in eastern Canada, says it can raise funding if it gets a commitment from the French government to send two whales there.
The Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) proposes to enclose a 40-hectare (98-acre) area of marine water with nets.
Vicki and Kaijo were then able to enjoy the large expanse of water with the support of vets and social workers for the rest of their lives.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average lifespan of a male killer whale is about 30 years. Females usually live about 50 years.
“Life in the reserve will be as close as possible to what they experienced growing up in the ocean,” says the WSP. “It will be a new life makes up for a lot of what came before.’
Such projects have been done before.
Keiko, the killer whale who starred in the 1993 film Free Willy, was rescued from captivity in 1996 and released to a bay in Iceland in 1998.
Unlike Vicki and Keijo, he was born in the wild and was able to relearn some essential survival skills after living in the bay for four years.
Eventually he left with a pod of killer whales he joined and swam to Norway, where he died in 2003 from an infection.
Strager warns that the proposed sanctuary may seem as foreign to Vicky and Keijo as the open ocean.
“We have this concept that animals enjoy freedom in the same sense that we do, ‘now they’re free and they’re going to like it.’
“We don’t know if they see freedom in the same way… Will they be afraid because it’s so different from what they’re used to? I don’t know.”
She tells the BBC: “I don’t think there are good solutions for animals that have been kept in captivity all their lives.”
