Busan's celebrity shark slips back into the canal hours after being guided out, prompting a new attempt

As of 7:54 a.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026

A shark that drew crowds after getting stuck in a canal in Busan, South Korea, returned to the waterway hours after workers coaxed it out, authorities said Thursday, AFP reported.

Workers used nets fixed to floating pontoons late Wednesday to guide the shark, nicknamed Bukhangi by fans, gradually toward the sea, but it dived beneath a net and returned to the canal overnight, according to AFP.

"The shark is now between the outer net and an inner net installed 30m to 40m ... further inside the canal," an oceans ministry official told AFP. She said a new attempt began Thursday morning, with authorities raising the outer net to let the shark move out of the canal.

A local sensation

The shark was first spotted in the artificial waterway in the southeastern port city last month, AFP reported. Authorities had twice tried and failed to steer it back to sea before Wednesday, using water jets and then nets.

The three-meter dusky shark, a species typically found in tropical waters, has drawn more than 1.6 million people to the canal, according to AFP. Busan Mayor Chun Jae-soo has thanked it for generating publicity he said would otherwise have cost "trillions," AFP reported. Environmental groups link its appearance to warming seas pushing warm-water fish northward, with subtropical sharks following, according to AFP.

What is not known

As of AFP's report, it was not known whether Thursday's attempt had succeeded.