Person fined after using foghorn to wake sleeping polar bear

An individual has incurred a penalty for employing a foghorn to rouse a slumbering polar bear within Norway's Svalbard archipelago, as confirmed by a local authority.

The event transpired earlier this month when an alarm was sounded from a vessel navigating a fjord in northwestern Svalbard, approximately 1,000 km (620 miles) from the North Pole. On Thursday, an unnamed person was issued a fine of 50,000 kroner (£3,890) in connection with the incident, according to the territory's governor.

Regional statutes prohibit the "needless disturbance, attraction, or pursuit of a polar bear," a species designated as protected in Svalbard since 1972. The most recent scientific assessment in 2015 estimated the archipelago's polar bear population at around 250.

Governor Lars Fause stated that as the vessel passed the animal, "its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land." He added, "A person on board then used the ship's foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location." The individual has consented to pay the fine.

This is not an isolated occurrence of fines being levied for disturbing wildlife in the Svalbard region. In 2024, a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner (£900) for approaching a walrus too closely. The Svalbard Environment Act mandates that all activity within the archipelago must be conducted in a manner that avoids unnecessary disturbance to local wildlife, which encompasses polar bears, seals, whales, reindeer, and arctic foxes.