Shark stranded in South Korean canal draws 600,000 visitors as rescue bid fails

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 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 per cent 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.