BUSAN — A black shark nicknamed "Bukangi" that has stayed for more than a month in an artificial canal at Busan's North Port waterfront park is hovering near the canal's exit without heading out to sea, prolonging a standoff with authorities.
The Busan Metropolitan Government said on the 21st that the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea and the National Institute of Fisheries Science began a third operation that morning to guide the shark back to the sea. Officials steered the shark from the fourth and fifth footbridges, where it has mostly surfaced, toward the exit near the Marina Bridge — the opposite direction from the second attempt on the 2nd.
Nets were used again this time, but officials focused on anchoring them to pontoons, floating platforms used for work on the water, to keep the shark from swimming back over the nets into the canal. The shark was guided to the area near the Marina Bridge at about 2 p.m., after which the nets were secured.
The shark, however, has circled the exit line without readily moving out to sea. It has repeatedly swum two to three meters beyond the canal mouth into open water before turning back, officials said. Authorities said they intend to push the shark completely out to the open sea this time, however long it takes.
During the second operation, officials had driven the shark to a point about 100 meters from the exit near the sixth footbridge, installed nets and withdrawn, only for the shark to swim back over the nets into the canal the following day. After two failed attempts, authorities waited for the shark to leave on its own, but resumed work on the 21st as falling water temperatures raised the risk that it would die.
The shark was first spotted in the canal on Sept. 18. Crowds gathering to see the 3-meter-long predator turned it into a Busan attraction, and cumulative visitors to the waterfront park recently surpassed 1.6 million.