1.6 million visit Busan to see shark 'Bukang-i,' with 96,000 over the weekend alone

About 1.6 million people have visited Busan's Bukang Waterfront Park to catch a glimpse of "Bukang-i," a shark that has been living in the park's artificial canal for more than a month.

As of 6 p.m. Sunday, the Busan Facilities Corporation counted 54,000 visitors to the park that day.

That surpassed the 42,000 who came on Saturday, bringing the two-day weekend total to 96,000.

The cumulative visitor count has reached 1.6 million since Bukang-i was first spotted on Sept. 18.

Amid the shark's surging popularity, footage captured by members of the public Sunday showed the tip of Bukang-i's right pectoral fin had turned white and sustained some damage, according to Yonhap.

The National Institute of Fisheries Science, which has been monitoring the shark's condition, confirmed the injury Sunday through a researcher at the scene.

The institute said the fin tip was partially damaged by friction as the shark swam close to the canal walls. No bleeding has been observed, and the injury is not considered serious enough to affect the animal's health.

"Sharks recover from skin damage quite quickly," an institute official said. "This fin injury is not something we need to be overly concerned about."

Bukang-i, a blacktip shark measuring about 3 meters in length, has remained in the artificial canal at Bukang Waterfront Park for about a month since first being spotted there in September.

Authorities have twice attempted to guide the shark back out to sea without success and are now waiting for it to find its own way out of the canal.