Bull shark found stranded in Hong Kong mudflats returned to sea by residents

A bull shark has been found stranded in the mudflats of Pak Nai, with Hong Kong authorities joining residents to rescue the animal and a marine scientist claiming that the sighting was positive news for the city’s marine ecosystem.

Khan Cheung, a PhD student at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) school of biological sciences who was involved in the rescue, said he and several colleagues were conducting research on the mudflats at about 8.30am when they spotted a woman in the area struggling to drag an object towards the sea.

“We were originally here to do our own research on the ecosystem of the mudflats. When we got here, there was a woman who we thought was helping to pick up trash in the area … then we saw that she was trying to get our attention while dragging something,” he said.

“We later discovered that she was trying to drag a shark. She told us that it had been stuck in some fishing nets by the shore … I stepped in to help push it back into the ocean.”

Cheung said that as of 11.20am, the shark remained in the waters they had returned it to.

He called the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, whose rescue team arrived at 11.50am and was still handling the situation as of 1.40pm.

Professor David Baker, interim director of HKU’s Swire Institute of Marine Science, identified the one-metre-long (3.2 feet) animal as a bull shark of about a year old. He said the presence of the creature was “fantastic news” for the city.