The shark, Bukang-i, has remained in a narrow canal for nearly three weeks. Several attempts to guide it to open water have failed.
A shark nicknamed Bukang-i has remained trapped in a narrow canal at Busan’s North Port for nearly three weeks, despite several rescue attempts. It was first spotted on September 18. The city says about 1.02 million people had visited the waterfront park to see it by Monday. The nickname refers to the Korean name for North Port, and the shark has been named an honorary ambassador of Busan, Yonhap reported.
Public interest surged during the Chuseok holiday. From September 24 to 27, the park drew an average of 120,750 visitors a day. Nearly 20,000 people came in the first two days after the shark was spotted, about five times the park’s usual holiday daily average of roughly 2,000 visitors.
Maritime police and local authorities initially tried to guide the shark out of the canal, then suspended the effort. On September 29, the Coast Guard and other agencies deployed five vessels and used streams of water to herd it toward open sea. The shark repeatedly avoided the water jets, and officials called off the operation about five hours later.
A second attempt took place on Friday, when a joint rescue team used a 50-metre-long, 6.8-metre-high net to direct the shark out. The net became stuck on the canal floor and the animal did not move toward the exit. The team removed the net and left the channel open, but the shark remained. The National Institute of Fisheries Science checks its health daily and has reported no major problem so far.