[Special Contribution] The Question Posed by 'Bukang-i': Busan, Where the Sea Becomes Its Own Aquarium

A 'special guest' arrived at the waterfront park in Busan North Port. After a shark estimated to be more than 3 meters long was spotted swimming through the scenic waterway, large crowds gathered to see it. Because it was a potentially dangerous marine animal, safety management had to come first. Yet the scene also suggested another possibility to me: North Port had instantly become a place of interest simply because people could encounter living marine life firsthand in the heart of the city.
This is not a proposal to release sharks into North Port or artificially raise dangerous marine animals. In fact, it is the opposite. The idea is to clean up the sea and restore its ecological environment so that a variety of marine life will come on its own. In short, I propose creating "Busan, where the sea becomes its own aquarium."
This incident felt especially significant to me. When I was serving as head of the Marine Environment Team at Busan Metropolitan City Government and considering long-term marine environmental policies, I remember incorporating a similar concept into an internal plan—linking marine ecosystem restoration with public waterfront spaces.
The trajectory of Busan's marine environmental policy also supports this vision. In 2008, the Study on the Basic Plan for Marine Environment Management in Busan proposed a broad range of measures, including not only coastal pollution management but also integrated marine environmental management, marine ecosystem restoration, public participation, and marine environmental education. Busan Metropolitan City Government later advanced these policies and established the Busan Comprehensive Plan for Marine Environment Management 2030 in 2016. The long-term plan called for approximately 549.5 billion won to be invested in four areas and 21 projects by 2030. It is worth noting that the plan went beyond improving water quality along Busan's coast and also set the restoration of marine life, including finless porpoises and sea turtles, as a policy goal.
A decade later, Busan's sea is changing significantly. The Busan North Port Redevelopment Project has returned to citizens waters that were once blocked off by port facilities, while creating a large waterfront park and a scenic waterway connected to the sea. Busan's marine environmental policy must now advance from cleaning up polluted waters to creating a sea where life can return.
What if that experiment began at North Port? I propose the creation of a tentatively named Busan North Port Urban Marine Ecological Park. The key is not to build another large structure or capture whales, dolphins, and sharks for display. Instead, it would involve surveying the water quality and seabed conditions in the North Port scenic waterway and surrounding waters, then creating habitats where fish and crustaceans can live by using seagrass, algae, eco-friendly ecological blocks, and small artificial reefs. As prey species increase, small fish will arrive. As their numbers grow, a wider variety of marine life will naturally follow. Rather than bringing in marine animals, the goal is to create a sea where they can come on their own.
Incorporating advanced technology would make North Port even more distinctive. Underwater cameras could be installed in the scenic waterway, and AI (artificial intelligence) video analysis could allow citizens and tourists to observe life beneath the surface in real time through their smartphones or on-site displays. An "AI marine life field guide" could also identify a species and explain its ecological characteristics as fish pass by. North Port is well suited to such an initiative. It is close to Busan Station and the old downtown area, home to the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal, and can be linked with the National Maritime Museum in Yeongdo District. A marine ecology and culture tourism corridor could connect the experience of a living sea at North Port with opportunities to learn about maritime history and culture at the National Maritime Museum. Waterfront cities around the world are competing with striking architecture and commercial facilities. Busan, however, has an asset that other cities cannot easily create: a living sea. North Port's future competitiveness will depend less on how many buildings are constructed than on the special experiences it offers citizens and tourists.
The shark's appearance at North Port was a chance natural phenomenon, but it posed a question to us. Busan must move one step further—from being a city that cleans up the sea to becoming a city where life returns to it. It should become a city where citizens and people from around the world can see, learn about, and enjoy that life together. Let us begin a new experiment at Busan North Port: creating a city where the sea becomes its own aquarium.
Lim Jeong-hyeon, Ph.D. in Marine Engineering