A person has been fined 50,000 Norwegian kroner (about 4,550 euros) for waking a sleeping polar bear by sounding a ship's foghorn in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, authorities said Thursday.
The incident occurred in August when passengers on a vessel spotted a sleeping polar bear in the Lomfjorden fjord in northeastern Svalbard. A person aboard the ship sounded the foghorn, startling the bear and causing it to move away. Other passengers reported the incident to the Svalbard governor, who imposed the fine.
Local regulations prohibit unnecessarily disturbing, attracting, or pursuing polar bears in Svalbard, where the species has been protected since 1972. The archipelago's polar bear population was estimated at around 260 individuals during the last scientific survey in 2015. Authorities have previously issued fines ranging from 1,000 to 4,500 euros to tourists and guides who approached polar bears too closely or disturbed them.