{"id":722,"date":"2026-10-22T19:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=722"},"modified":"2026-10-22T19:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T19:58:54","slug":"busan-celebrity-shark-bukangi-refuses-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"THE CELEBRITY SHARK WON\u2019T LEAVE THE CANAL! | Eight hours of nets, a cheering crowd, a barrier to keep her out, and Busan\u2019s 10-foot mascot keeps circling back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SHE\u2019S NOT GOING ANYWHERE! A famous <strong>dusky shark<\/strong> nicknamed <strong>Bukangi<\/strong> is still hanging around a canal in <strong>Busan<\/strong>, South Korea, a day after rescuers guided her out, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cr3wv99614deo\">BBC<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>The three-metre (10ft) shark turned up in the canal last month and became an instant sensation, drawing more than <strong>1.6 million visitors<\/strong>. The city embraced her as an unofficial mascot.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, in a livestreamed operation, rescuers spent <strong>more than eight hours<\/strong> gently steering her with a net toward open water while hundreds of fans cheered and waved goodbye. Then on Thursday morning she reportedly broke through a barrier and swam right back in, getting stuck between two layers of nets until rescuers removed the outer one.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities have fortified the barrier, and say Bukangi is swimming further out but keeps circling back to the mouth of the waterway. A government official told the BBC rescuers have now concluded their operations.<\/p>\n<p>Why the fuss? She appeared injured and wasn\u2019t eating, and falling water temperatures could weaken her further. Not everyone wanted her gone: one visitor called her \u201ca rare gift\u201d to Busan. Another fan put it best: \u201cshe should go and live her normal shark life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cr3wv99614deo\">BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight hours of nets, a cheering crowd, a barrier to keep her out, and Busan\u2019s 10-foot mascot keeps circling back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-busan-shark-1022.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}