Person fined after using foghorn to wake sleeping polar bear

A person in Norway's Svalbard archipelago has been fined for using a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear, according to a local official. The incident occurred earlier this month when someone sounded the alarm from a vessel sailing in a fjord about 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole. The individual responsible for the fine has not been named, but the governor of the territory confirmed the 50,000 kroner (£3,890) fine.

Svalbard regulations prohibit needlessly disturbing, attracting, or pursuing polar bears, which were designated a protected species in 1972. The last scientific estimate in 2015 counted around 250 polar bears in the archipelago. Governor Lars Fause explained that when the vessel approached the resting animal, its passengers spotted the polar bear on land.

The vessel's foghorn was then used, waking the bear and prompting it to move to another location. This is not the first time individuals have faced fines for disrupting wildlife in Svalbard. In 2024, a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner (£900) for coming too close to a walrus. The Svalbard Environment Act mandates that all activity on the archipelago must be conducted without unnecessary disturbance to local wildlife, which includes polar bears, seals, whales, reindeer, and arctic foxes.