Rescuers in Busan make third attempt to guide trapped shark from canal back to sea
In the South Korean city of Busan, officials made a third attempt on Wednesday, 21 October, to guide a shark trapped in a canal back to open water. More than a million visitors have come to see the animal since September.
Officials in Busan, a port city in south-eastern South Korea, made a third attempt on Wednesday, 21 October, to help a shark trapped in a canal return to the open sea. The animal first appeared in the waterway on 18 September, and more than a million people have since come to see it. By late Wednesday afternoon, it was still unclear whether the operation had succeeded.
How the operation unfolded
City officials and Coast Guard personnel scanned the water from the shore and from a makeshift bridge. Divers also went into the water. To steer the shark towards open water, the team used a net secured to a pontoon, a floating platform.
At several points the shark was seen swimming close to the shore. Onlookers gathered along the banks of the canal to watch what was happening.
What is known about the situation
This was the third time Busan authorities had tried to send the animal back to sea. The source gives no details about how the earlier attempts went or how they ended, and it does not name the species or size of the shark. It also does not say how the animal ended up in the canal.
As the operation continued, city and Coast Guard staff kept watching the water, and the crowd along the canal banks stayed in place. Whether the shark had made its way out to open water had not been confirmed by the afternoon, and the outcome will become clear only once the operation concludes.
