Bukang-i, a shark that spent more than a month in an artificial waterway at Busan's North Port waterfront park before being guided out, has been missing for 10 days, raising the likelihood that it has headed to open waters.
No sightings of Bukang-i in the waters off North Port have been reported, according to Yonhap.
Bukang-i left the waterfront park's waterway on Oct. 21, when authorities conducted a third operation to guide it toward the open sea. The shark appeared intermittently near Pier 1 and the International Ferry Terminal before vanishing on Oct. 27.
Experts say a shark unseen for about a week in a row has most likely moved to open waters. Even if Bukang-i is still somewhere off North Port, they say it is only a matter of time before it heads out to sea.
A drop in surface water temperature off North Port to around 18 to 19 degrees Celsius is also believed to be a factor in the disappearance. The optimal temperature range for sharks is 18 to 26 degrees Celsius, meaning conditions off North Port have reached the lower limit.
That anticipated shift in conditions is believed to have informed authorities' decision to launch the third guidance operation on Oct. 21, after two earlier attempts to move Bukang-i out of the waterway had failed.
The plan was to release Bukang-i while water temperatures were still relatively warm, giving it time to adapt to its new environment, with the expectation that it would move to open waters on its own once temperatures hit the lower threshold.
Authorities plan to keep the layered barriers installed immediately after the third operation — to prevent Bukang-i from re-entering the waterway — in place for now.
They are expected to review whether to remove the barriers about a month after Bukang-i exited the waterway.
husn7@heraldcorp.com
