Busan Shark Bukangi Returns to Sea: Third Rescue Succeeds After More Than a Month in North Port Canal
A shark nicknamed Bukangi, which had spent more than a month in the canal at Busan's North Port Waterfront Park in South Korea, was guided back toward the open sea on October 21. South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said two earlier attempts had failed, and that in the third operation rescuers guided the shark more than one kilometre and installed three layers of netting to keep it from swimming back into the inner waterway. Kim Hyun-sung, director of the ministry's Marine Ecology Division, said the shark had been pushed past the silt curtain that had blocked its route to the sea and that the operation was a success, adding that officials would monitor whether it swims the remaining distance on its own.
Bukangi was first spotted in the North Port waterway on September 18. According to the Busan Infrastructure Corporation, more than 1.6 million people visited the waterfront park through October 20 to see the shark. The National Institute of Fisheries Science identified Bukangi as a female dusky shark measuring about 3 metres; the species, found in tropical, subtropical and temperate waters, is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The canal sits in central Busan, close to high-rise buildings and a major high-speed rail station, making the shark's long stay unusual. City officials said the shark had not been observed feeding and that falling temperatures could affect its health, making the operation necessary; South Korean media reported minor injuries to its fin and snout.
Authorities first tried to guide the shark out on September 29 using vessels equipped with water jets, without success. A second attempt on October 2 used a net 50 metres long and 6.8 metres high, but the operation was halted after the net snagged on rocks on the canal floor. The third attempt, led by the Oceans Ministry and the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea, took the opposite route with fewer underwater obstacles, using a net mounted on floating platforms, eight professional divers and drones to track the shark. The fisheries institute recorded 46 sightings of large sharks along South Korea's east coast in the first half of this year, compared with 12 in the same period last year, and experts have cited warming seas as one possible factor. A visitor from Seoul who had travelled to Busan four times to see Bukangi told media she was relieved it had returned to the sea. (Reporting by Reuters and the Korea JoongAng Daily)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 韩国釜山北港亲水公园水道实景，岸边为围观人群，Bukangi 曾在此水道滞留逾一个月。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons 文件 2026 북항친수공원.png，CC BY 4.0 授权
