Person fined after using foghorn to wake sleeping polar bear

A person has been fined for using a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, a local official said.

The incident happened earlier this month after someone sounded the alarm from onboard a vessel, which was sailing in a fjord in northwestern Svalbard - about 1,000 km (620 miles) from the North Pole.

On Thursday, a person - who has not been named - was fined 50,000 kroner (£3,890) over the incident, the governor of the territory confirmed.

Under local regulations in the region, "it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear", which was declared a protected species in Svalbard in 1972.

About 250 polar bears were counted in the archipelago during the last scientific estimate, carried out in 2015.

In a statement, governor Lars Fause said when the vessel sailed past the animal "its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land".

"A person on board then used the ship's foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location."

The individual has agreed to pay the fine.

It is not the first time people have been fined for disrupting animals in the Svalbard region.

In 2024, a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner (£900) for getting too close to a walrus .

The Svalbard Environment Act stipulates that all traffic on the archipelago must take place in a way that does not lead to unnecessary disturbance of local wildlife - which include polar bears, seals, whales, reindeer and arctic foxes.

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