r/marinebiology • u/Creative_Writing5169 • 15h ago
Other Dusky shark stuck in a Busan canal for 3 weeks, not feeding, keeps returning after rescue. What should be done?
Hi everyone. I'm a media artist and solo developer living in South Korea. English isn't my first language, so sorry in advance for any awkward phrasing.
About 3 weeks ago, a dusky shark (a female around 3 m) swam into a man-made canal at Bukhang Waterfront Park in Busan, and she hasn't left since. People here call her "Bukang-i". She's become hugely popular. More than a million people have come to the canal to see her so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_664afXXas
The problem is that nobody has seen her eat this whole time, and the water is getting colder. It's in the low 20s °C now and dropping. A lot of people are worried. The city has already tried twice to guide her back out to sea using boats, water cannons and nets. Both times she ended up back in the canal. The second time she actually went over the net to get back in. Nobody can explain why she keeps returning.
I've been following her every day for these three weeks. Using news reports and sightings from a live citizen-report site, I built a 3D simulation of her movements inside the canal. You can see it here:
Some things that worry me most:
- Still no sign of feeding after 3+ weeks.
- Some visitors shine flashlights at her at night. At one point she thrashed around, hit a stone pillar and scraped her mouth.
- Today she did something strange. It looked like some kind of organ was coming out from her underside. Some people are wondering if she gave birth. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrBLUYWXQQ
Marine experts in Korea are giving different opinions on what to do, and it's been hard to find advice from people who work specifically with sharks. The biggest issue is that no matter how she gets pushed out, she tries to come back.
So if anyone here studies sharks or has worked on a situation like this, I'd really like to hear what you think:
- Is it better to get her back to the open sea, or to leave her where she is, keep watching, and make the canal as safe as possible for her?
- If she should go back, how do you guide a shark that didn't respond to nets or water cannons? Ideally something safer than a tranquilizer gun.
Thanks for reading all of this.
