By Maggie Grether and Hyun Young Yi
SEOUL, Sept 30 (Reuters) – 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 3.5-metre (11.48-ft) shark was first spotted in a narrow waterway in North Port on September 18.
As the days passed without the shark finding its way back to the ocean, authorities launched a rescue operation on Tuesday to guide it out, but the effort failed.
The 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, according to videos published by Yonhap News Television.
Officials now plan to use a net to try to guide the shark out of the canal on Friday, 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 around 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% 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.
(Reporting by Maggie Grether and Hyun Young YiEditing by Ed Davies)
