A large shark that swam into a waterway at a waterfront park in Busan's Bukhang port district has stayed in the heart of the city for six days, drawing an unexpected wave of "shark tourism." But the crowds have brought danger with them, as visitors climb over safety railings and throw food into the water to get a closer look, leaving port authorities struggling with an unwelcome kind of popularity.
A Shark as Mascot: The Rise of "Bukangi"
Busan's Dong-gu district office said on the 24th that it plans to designate the shark as the district's official mascot. The district will also hold a public contest to choose the character's name, appearance and backstory.
A shark measuring about 3 to 3.5 meters has been spotted in the Bukhang waterfront park waterway since the 18th. The National Institute of Fisheries Science identified it as a likely spinner shark, a member of the requiem shark family. Residents have nicknamed it "Bukangi," a play on the Bukhang port where it appeared.
As word spread on social media, visitors began arriving not only from Busan but from South Gyeongsang Province, North Gyeongsang Province and the Seoul metropolitan area. The park's normally quiet parking lot has filled with cars, and long lines of onlookers now stretch along the waterway.
"An unexpected encounter brought by a single shark has become an opportunity to introduce Bukhang to the whole country," Dong-gu District Mayor Kang Chul-ho said. "We will make the shark Dong-gu's new mascot and create commemorative content to build a foundation for marine tourism at Bukhang."
Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo echoed the sentiment in a phone interview with CBS Radio on the 22nd, saying he would turn the moment into "a once-in-a-century opportunity to introduce Busan's Bukhang to the nation and the world."
Diving for a Dropped Phone, Tossing Fish to the Shark
The shark's growing fame has been accompanied by a string of reckless acts.
Video that circulated on online communities and social media on the 24th showed a person climbing over a safety railing and descending to the edge of the waterway. The person was trying to retrieve a mobile phone they had dropped into the water while filming the shark.
The person reached into the water, recovered the phone and climbed back over the railing. According to the person who submitted the footage, the shark surfaced near the spot where the hand had been placed less than five minutes later.
Visitors have also been seen throwing food to the shark. A video that spread on social media on the 23rd showed someone hurling an object toward the shark as it swam near the surface. One internet user who said they witnessed the scene claimed the object was a dead rockfish, and that when bystanders tried to stop the person, they said to the effect that "it has to eat, too." Earlier accounts described people throwing raw chicken into the water.
The Busan city government, the Busan Port Authority and the Coast Guard have stepped up patrols and safety guidance around the waterway. If the shark does not make its way back out to sea on its own by the 27th, the final day of the Chuseok holiday, authorities plan to use large nets to guide it into open water and release it.
A Large Shark in an Urban Waterway: "The Effect of Warming Waters"
Not everyone sees "Bukangi's" arrival as cause for celebration.
Spinner sharks live mainly in temperate and subtropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. The National Institute of Fisheries Science said rising water temperatures had drawn large sharks inland as they followed warm-water prey such as mackerel and Pacific bluefin tuna, eventually leading one into a coastal waterfront park waterway.
A total of 73 sharks have been found in the East Sea this year alone. Off Seogwipo on Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, average water temperatures climbed to 30 degrees Celsius in August, and in 2024, high water temperatures killed 53.08 million farmed fish, causing about 40.5 billion won ($29 million) in damage.
In response, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has drawn up a comprehensive climate adaptation plan for the fisheries sector. It is also moving to revise seasonal fishing periods, closed seasons and the total allowable catch system, which were set based on conditions 30 to 40 years ago, to reflect the northward migration of species and changing conditions in different waters.
Using the shark as a tourism asset has also drawn criticism. The Green Party said the appearance of a subtropical shark in Busan reflected the northward movement of warm-water species and rising water temperatures caused by climate change, and criticized efforts to treat the episode simply as a tourism windfall.
An official at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries told Yonhap News Agency that "the rapid transformation of the marine environment due to climate change is a national issue that threatens the sustainability of the fishing industry." The official added, "We will move quickly to implement field-oriented, climate-adaptive fisheries policies and do everything possible to protect fishermen's livelihoods and stabilize the marine ecosystem."
