Shark sighting at Busan waterfront park prompts warning 

A shark was spotted in a waterway at North Port Waterfront Park in Busan for the second straight day on Saturday.

The Busan Metropolitan City Hall received a report at around 1:05 p.m. that a shark had been spotted in the waterway inside the park in Dong District, Busan.

The city sent a safety alert urging people in the area and nearby residents to stay alert.

A 3- to 4-meter (9.8-to 13-foot) shark was also spotted in the waterway at around 8:57 a.m. on Friday. Busan officials believe both sightings were of a copper shark, a species in the requiem shark family.

Copper sharks live in subtropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, including coastal waters around Korea. The species can pose a risk of attack.

Officials believe the shark spotted Saturday belongs to the same species as the one seen the previous day. They have not determined whether Friday's shark remained in the waterway and resurfaced Saturday or whether a different shark entered the area.

The Korea Coast Guard is monitoring the situation and waiting for the shark to leave the waterway on its own.

After the first report Friday, authorities deployed the Korea Coast Guard Special Rescue Unit, a coastal rescue boat, a patrol vessel and shark-control equipment to guide the shark toward open waters.

However, they stopped the operation after the National Institute of Fisheries Science advised that aggressively driving the shark away could make it more likely to attack.

The National Institute of Fisheries Science believes rising water temperatures have led to more reports of copper sharks in Korean coastal waters recently. It also believes the shark may have entered the North Port waterway while following prey.

BY JUNG SI-NAE [[email protected]]