Person fined in Norway for using foghorn to wake sleeping polar bear

A person has been fined in Norway's Svalbard archipelago after using a ship's foghorn to wake a polar bear that was sleeping on land. The incident took place earlier this month while a vessel was sailing through a fjord in northwestern Svalbard, roughly 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole.

The territory's governor, Lars Fause, confirmed on Thursday that the unnamed individual had been fined 50,000 kroner, equivalent to about £3,890. According to the governor's account, those aboard the vessel spotted the bear resting on shore, after which someone sounded the ship's foghorn, startling the animal and causing it to move away to another spot.

The person responsible has agreed to pay the fine.

Protected since 1972

Polar bears were designated a protected species in Svalbard in 1972, and local regulations prohibit needlessly disturbing, attracting or pursuing them. The most recent scientific survey, conducted in 2015, counted about 250 polar bears across the archipelago.

Under Svalbard's Environment Act, all traffic across the territory must avoid causing unnecessary disturbance to wildlife, a category that includes polar bears, seals, whales, reindeer and arctic foxes.

This is not the first such penalty issued in the region. In 2024, a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner, about £900, for approaching a walrus too closely.