South Korea’s hottest star this season is not a K-pop diva, K-drama heartthrob or K-beauty influencer. It is a 10-foot-long dusky shark.
The wild creature, a female, was first spotted about a month ago in a canal in a waterfront park near the port in the southeastern city of Busan. Local officials have tried twice so far to guide her back to open water, but the wayward fish continues to linger in the waterway and attract crowds.
More than a million people from across the nation — including the president — have flocked to the park, officials say, to catch a glimpse of the first shark anyone can remember seeing there.
The shark is the talk of Korean social media, but the fever is especially high in Busan, the country’s second-largest city. She even has a name: Bukangi, after her current residence in Bukhang Waterfront Park. Officials have made her an honorary city ambassador; a local distillery has released a special edition bottle; and Busan’s professional baseball team has released a keychain of its mascot, a sea gull, dressed in a shark suit.
Kim Soo-min, 64, a Busan resident, said she felt a personal connection with the shark.
“She’s like a pet now. I find myself worrying about her condition at night and wonder if she’s made it safely home yet,” Ms. Kim said, adding that the park was part of her daily walk.
On a recent afternoon, hundreds of people had gathered to catch a glimpse, but the shark was nowhere to be seen. Some said they had been waiting for hours. “Are you here yet, sharky? Come on out, we’re waiting for you!” yelled one man from the crowd. Others speculated that maybe she was taking a nap or feeling shy, or maybe she was injured.
Around 3 p.m., she surfaced gracefully by the canal wall, a fin peeking out of the water and her gray body glistening for all of five seconds before she dipped downward. It was her first appearance that afternoon, and people gasped, yelled and darted forward to see her.
“Who knows when else in my life I’ll see a wild shark?” said Park So-mi, 32, who was there with her mother.
The first sighting, on Sept. 18, came after the official summer beach swimming season in Busan had ended. The canal where Bukangi is now stranded is under a mile long, around 200 feet wide, and curves like a horseshoe before opening up into the century-old Busan North Port, which is central to South Korea’s maritime trade.
Officials made their first attempt to rescue Bukangi on Sept. 29, when the Busan Coast Guard and city fire department used boats, water pumps, noise and vibrations to try to herd her out of the canal.
A few days later, they cast and dragged a wide net across the canal to slowly push Bukangi toward the sea. The net got tangled on the canal bed, and the shark swam back over it during high tide. For now, the authorities have suspended rescue attempts and are hoping she leaves on her own.
But they are racing against time.
Bukangi is a dusky shark, which is classified as an internationally endangered species. Dusky sharks are migratory animals and thrive in temperate to tropical temperatures.
Experts say they can last a month without food and live up to 50 years. They rely on vibrations and electric frequencies on top of sight, hearing and smell to navigate. They are not uncommon in waters near Busan, but officials say they began tracking the species only in recent years and have limited data about their habitat and migration patterns locally.
Kim Hyun Woo, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Fisheries Science who has been part of the team monitoring her behavior and condition, said Bukangi was healthy save for a few abrasions from bumping into the canal wall, but she has not been eating.
By late November, the water will be too cold for her to survive, he said, adding, “I don’t know what would happen if she’s not out by then.”
Mr. Kim estimates that she is over 20 years old, and suspects that she got stuck in the port after the sounds and lights from cruise and cargo ships and human activities nearby disoriented her.
But for now, people are still eager to see her. Recently, someone started a website where people can log sightings.
“I feel sad for the poor thing. It must be frightened,” said Ms. Kim, the Busan resident. “But because of Bukangi, so many people have gathered, and I felt the spirit of Busan for the first time in a while.”
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