Person fined $5,000 for using foghorn to disturb sleeping polar bear

JUNEAU, Alaska — A person has been fined for sounding a foghorn that woke a slumbering polar bear in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, the region's governor said in a statement.

The incident occurred earlier in August when someone used the booming, low-pitched horn, usually reserved for maritime warnings, aboard a vessel that had been sailing in a fjord in northern Svalbard, the Arctic island group that sits roughly halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

A fine of around $5,300 was issued to the perpetrator on Thursday after the governor of Svalbard deemed the action to be disturbing to the polar bear and conducted intentionally.

Environmental protection laws in Svalbard state that it is prohibited to "unnecessarily disturb, lure or pursue polar bears," a species protected by international law since 1973.

Regulations also stipulate that no one may get closer than 984 feet from a polar bear between July and February. Between March and June, the mammals' typical mating season, the no-go zone increases to 1,640 feet.

It has been illegal to hunt polar bears on Svalbard since they received protected status.

An estimated 3,000 polar bears live in the Svalbard and Barents Sea region — a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.

While many are known to migrate to the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land in Russia's northernmost territory, and the count of the apex predators on Svalbard varies throughout the year, around 300 remain there year-round.

Those who spend the summer months on Svalbard do so despite a significant drop in ice – where polar bears typically hunt their primary food source: fat-rich seals.

"Bears resting in the summer ice-free season with fewer sources of high fat calories accessible, often choose to just wait out the lean times with very long naps and very little movement if they are in good body condition: which for a bear means on the chubby side," Geoff York, vice president of research and policy at Polar Bears International, told CNN.

"Disturbing bears during this time of year may be more significant for their survival or potential reproductive success if it's a pregnant or nursing female by causing them to burn calories unnecessarily," he warned.

York, whose organization is dedicated to the protection of polar bears and the sea ice they depend on, said he was encouraged to see the authorities act swiftly to deter others from repeating the behavior.

Gov. Lars Fause explained in his statement that 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 penalty.

Fines for disrupting animals in the Svalbard region have been handed out before.

In 2024, a tourist was fined $1,300 after attempting to approach a walrus.

Members of the public alerted officials and the man was intercepted by the governor's employees.

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