Busan mayor delighted by shark visit; Green Party calls it a climate warning

A 3-to-4-meter shark that appeared in the artificial waterway of Busan's North Port waterfront park has captured public attention — earning the nickname "Bukang-i" — but the Green Party is urging the public not to celebrate, calling the animal's presence "a warning to us all" and demanding stronger action on climate change.

In a statement titled "The Shark Came to Warn Us" released Tuesday, the Green Party said, "Now is not the time to cheer and enjoy the shark. We must recognize the gravity of the situation and begin a fundamental transformation of our lives and systems."

The party noted that the species — identified as a tawny nurse shark, which typically inhabits subtropical waters such as the Pacific — likely followed warm-water fish species that have been migrating northward as ocean temperatures rise due to climate change.

Changes in the marine ecosystem around the Korean Peninsula driven by rising water temperatures have been observed in recent years, with species once confined to the southern coast increasingly appearing farther north. Experts have also raised the possibility that the shark entered coastal waters in search of prey and became disoriented in the artificial waterway.

According to the Green Party, the average coastal water temperature off Busan has risen about 1.2 degrees Celsius since 2000, and large shark sightings along the East Sea coast through last month reached 73 cases — 2.5 times the 29 recorded in the same period a year earlier.

The party said South Korea remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as coal and LNG for power generation, and that thermal discharge from nuclear power plants poses a serious problem as well. Against this backdrop, it argued, the government is pushing a "mega-project" worth 4,000 trillion won while the National Assembly has revised the Carbon Neutrality Act — moves the party characterized as a passive response to the climate crisis.

The Green Party also said it was "stunned" by media reports treating the surge in The Pinkfong Company's share price — the firm holds the intellectual property rights to "Baby Shark" — as an entertaining side story to the shark's appearance. It went on to criticize Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo, saying he had gone so far as to call the shark's arrival "proof that the North Port waterfront park's ecosystem is that healthy" and to promise to "nurture North Port into a beautiful sea where diverse life coexists."

"The shark did not come to entertain us," the party said. "Its appearance is a warning to us all, and if we ignore that warning, catastrophe is all that awaits."

The shark was first spotted Friday in the artificial waterway of the North Port waterfront park and has not left since. Its extended stay quickly turned North Port into a tourist attraction, drawing about 20,000 visitors over the weekend and thousands to around 10,000 on weekdays. The shark has been given the affectionate nickname "Bukang-i," after the port's name, and nearby businesses have reported a surge in shark-themed product sales — a phenomenon locals are calling the "shark boom."

Mayor Jeon welcomed the shark's arrival in a Tuesday interview on CBS Radio's "Park Jae-hong's One-Round Bout." "This is publicity that no amount of money could buy," he said. "I feel like buying a bunch of rays and squid — things it likes to eat — and tossing them in. I just find it absolutely adorable."

The Busan Environmental Movement Alliance also weighed in, releasing a statement titled "North Port, Where a Shark Is Trapped — A Waterfront Space for Whom?" The group said the situation should not be dismissed as mere spectacle or a passing curiosity. "We must completely overhaul the paradigm of waterfront policy so that humans and marine life can coexist," it said.