An unidentified person was fined 50,000 kroner (£3,890) on Thursday after sounding a ship's foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, the territory's governor confirmed.
Person fined 50,000 kroner for waking polar bear with foghorn in Svalbard
An unidentified person was fined 50,000 kroner (£3,890) on Thursday after sounding a ship's foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, the territory's governor confirmed.
The incident took place earlier in May when a vessel was sailing in a fjord in northwestern Svalbard. According to a statement by governor Lars Fause, as the vessel passed the shoreline its occupants spotted a polar bear sleeping on land, and a person on board then sounded the ship's foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location. The individual has agreed to pay the fine.
Under local regulations, it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear. The polar bear was declared a protected species in Svalbard in 1972. The Svalbard Environment Act also stipulates that all traffic on the archipelago must take place in a way that does not lead to unnecessary disturbance of local wildlife, which includes polar bears, seals, whales, reindeer and arctic foxes.
This is not the first enforcement action of its kind in the region. In 2024, a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner (£900) for getting too close to a walrus.
About 250 polar bears were counted in the Svalbard archipelago during the last scientific estimate, carried out in 2015.
- The source does not state the nationality or identity of the person fined.
- The source does not state the type or name of the vessel involved.
- The source does not state the exact date earlier in the month when the incident occurred.
- The source does not provide a current polar bear population estimate beyond the 2015 figure of approximately 250.
- The source does not state whether any formal investigation or hearing preceded the fine, beyond the governor's confirmation.