Shark stranded in Busan canal drawing visitors

A shark stranded in a canal in the South Korean port of Busan has become the country’s latest wildlife sensation, with the city saying about 600,000 people have flocked to see it over the past two weeks.

The 3.5m shark was first spotted in a narrow waterway in North Port on Sept. 18.

As the days passed without the shark finding its way back to the ocean, authorities on Tuesday launched a rescue operation to guide it out, but the effort failed.

People gather to watch a trapped shark in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Photo: Yonhap via AP

The South Korean Coast Guard and other agencies deployed vessels to spray jets of water behind the shark to gently propel it toward the open ocean, but it swam away from the streams, videos published by Yonhap News Television showed.

Officials plan to use a net to try to guide the shark out of the canal tomorrow, the Chosun Daily reported.

The shark, reported to be a bronze whaler, has become something of a celebrity in South Korea and has been dubbed “Bukangi,” a nickname derived from “Buk Hang,” the Korean name for Busan’s north port, and the Korean suffix “-i”.

During the four-day Chuseok holiday last weekend, about 480,000 people visited the waterfront park where the shark was stranded, compared with the park’s usual daily average of about 2,000 visitors on weekends, according to a Busan city statement and media reports.

On Tuesday, Busan declared the shark an honorary public relations ambassador for the city after a poll on the city’s official Instagram account received 91 percent approval from about 8,000 participants.

Other animal escapades have gripped South Korea in the past.

Earlier this year, a wolf that escaped from its enclosure at a South Korean zoo spawned a cryptocurrency meme coin and even prompted a message of concern from the country’s president.