A person has been fined $5,255 after using a ship’s foghorn to deliberately wake a sleeping polar bear in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard archipelago.
The incident happened earlier this month as a vessel travelled through a fjord in northeastern Svalbard, about 620 miles from the North Pole, CBS News reported.
“Its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land,” the governor of Svalbard said in a statement.
“A person on board then used the ship’s foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location,” the governor added.
Authorities ordered the person responsible to pay the fine, which they agreed to do. Officials have not disclosed the person’s identity or nationality.
Polar bears have been a protected species in Svalbard since 1972. Local regulations state that “it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear.”
About 260 polar bears were recorded across the archipelago during the most recent scientific estimate in 2015.
Scientists have long warned that climate change and shrinking sea ice threaten polar bear habitats.
However, recent research tracking nearly 800 Svalbard polar bears between 1992 and 2019 found the animals remained in relatively good physical condition despite substantial sea ice loss.
