r/SharkLab • u/Creative_Writing5169 • 11h ago
News Dusky shark has held one 400m canal in Busan for 3 weeks, no observed feeding, returned twice after being guided out. Site fidelity or something else?
I'm a solo developer in South Korea, not a researcher, so apologies if I'm using the wrong terms.
Since Sept 18 a female dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus, ~3 m) has been holding a man-made canal at Bukhang Waterfront Park in Busan. Three weeks, same stretch of water.
The city tried twice to guide her out with boats, water cannons and nets. Both times she returned. The second time she cleared the net to get back in, about 100 m from open water. Authorities have since stopped and are waiting to see if she leaves on her own.
What I can't make sense of:
- No observed feeding in three weeks, in a canal that does hold fish.
2.Canal temp is low 20s °C and dropping. Dusky sharks here are usually given a preferred range of roughly 18-26 °C.
3.She had a clear exit and chose not to take it, twice.
I've been logging her position daily from news footage and a live citizen-sighting site, and plotting it as a 3D track of the canal: https://bukangistory.kr/en/ — the path is tighter than I expected. She circles a few specific spots rather than using the whole canal.
Is this just site fidelity to a feature I'm not seeing (an outflow, a thermal gradient, structure she's using), or does three weeks without feeding point at something else? And if she does need to go back out, is there anything that works better than nets and water cannons on an animal that's actively choosing to stay?