'Shark mom' worries about feeding stray shark at Busan port, delighting Korean internet

A shark that appeared at Busan's North Port has now lingered for four days, and its extended stay has spawned an unlikely online phenomenon: a self-appointed "shark mom" fretting about whether the animal is getting enough to eat.

A post titled "Busan shark — isn't anyone feeding it?" recently appeared on the social media platform Threads.

The author, identified only as A, wrote that the shark "must be hungry from all that performing" and asked whether someone should "toss it a few mackerel." A also questioned what the Busan Metropolitan Government was doing about the situation.

The post quickly went viral, and commenters dubbed A a "shark mom" — someone so invested in the animal's welfare that she was worrying about its meals.

Other users piled on with their own quips. "Only we Koreans would end up worrying about feeding a shark," one wrote. Another drew a comparison to a wolf that once appeared in Daejeon: "Daejeon has its wolf, and Busan has its shark." A third noted that mackerel is Busan's official city fish and wondered whether another species would do.

The shark was first spotted Friday in an artificial waterway inside the waterfront park at North Port, and efforts to drive it away have so far failed. The animal measures about 3.5 meters in length. Witnesses have also reported seeing a smaller shark, roughly 1 meter long, swimming nearby, though that account has not been confirmed.

Meanwhile, photos and videos of the shark have spread rapidly on social media, drawing curious crowds to the park in person. The waterfront park drew four to five times its usual number of visitors over the past weekend, according to the city of Busan.