$5,255 fine issued after foghorn wakes up sleeping polar bear

A person in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic has been fined $5,255 for using a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear, local officials said Thursday. The incident took place earlier this month when a vessel was sailing in a fjord in northeastern Svalbard, around 620 miles from the North Pole. "Its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land," the governor of the territory said in a statement. "A person on board then used the ship's foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location," he added.The governor's office ordered the individual to pay the hefty fine, which the person agreed to do. Neither the identity nor nationality of the person has been disclosed. Under local regulations, "it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear," which was declared a protected species in Svalbard in 1972. A male polar bear walks on the sea ice near glaciers in eastern Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 9, 2025. Olivier MORIN /AFP via Getty Images Some 260 polar bears were counted in the archipelago during the last scientific estimate, carried out in 2015. Polar bear population thrivingClimate change and melting ice ha...