BUSAN — A black shark nicknamed "Bukkangi," which has stayed in a waterway at a waterfront park in Busan's North Port for more than a month, was guided out to sea in a third attempt by authorities but returned within hours through a gap in the barrier. Related agencies decided to temporarily open one side of the barrier to ease the stress on the shark confined in a narrow space, and to fully resume the operation to guide it to the open sea.
According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Busan Metropolitan Government on the 22nd, authorities lifted and removed one side of the first net outside the waterway starting at 9:30 a.m. that day to secure an escape route. The plan is to let Bukkangi move freely between the open sea and the area near the waterway, then use pontoons and nets to drive it back outside the waterway. Authorities also plan to reinforce the depth of the nets to block any future re-entry and to continue real-time location monitoring.
At around 6 p.m. the previous day, authorities carried out a third operation to guide the shark to the open sea, mobilizing pontoons, barrier nets and professional divers, and succeeded in moving Bukkangi out of the waterway. The shark, which had been expected to swim out to the open sea, lingered near the waterway exit before re-entering at around 11 p.m. the same day through a space under or beside the pontoon, the first barrier installed to prevent its return.
Bukkangi was then trapped in a narrow zone between the first net, or pontoon, outside the waterway and a second net set 30 to 40 meters inside it, and continued swimming while surfacing. The shark did not make it as far as the waterway between the fourth and fifth footbridges, where it had been staying, but officials judged that safety risks and ecological stress had intensified as it remained in a narrow passage with its route to the open sea blocked.
Bukkangi was first spotted in the waterway on Sept. 18. Crowds gathered to see the 3-meter-long shark, making it a local attraction in Busan, and cumulative visitors to the waterfront park recently topped 1.6 million.