{"id":585544,"date":"2026-08-15T13:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585544\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T13:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:52:20","slug":"person-fined-5000-for-using-foghorn-to-disturb-sleeping-polar-bear-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585544\/","title":{"rendered":"Person fined $5,000 for using foghorn to disturb sleeping polar bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A person has been fined<\/a> for sounding a foghorn that woke a slumbering polar bear<\/a> in Norway\u2019s Svalbard archipelago, the region\u2019s governor said in a statement.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n 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.\n <\/p>\n

\n A fine of 50,000 kroner (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.\n <\/p>\n

\n Environmental<\/a> protection laws in Svalbard state that it is prohibited to \u201cunnecessarily disturb, lure or pursue polar bears,\u201d a species protected by international law since 1973.\n <\/p>\n

\n Regulations also stipulate that no one may get closer than 300 meters (984 feet) from a polar bear between July and February. Between March and June, the mammals\u2019 typical mating season, the no-go zone increases to 500 meters (1,640 feet).\n <\/p>\n

\n It has been illegal to hunt polar bears on Svalbard since they received protected status.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n An estimated 3,000 polar bears live in the Svalbard and Barents Sea region \u2014 a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.\n <\/p>\n

\n While many are known to migrate to the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land in Russia\u2019s northernmost territory, and the count of the apex predators on Svalbard varies throughout the year, around 300 remain there year-round.\n <\/p>\n

\n Those who spend the summer months on Svalbard do so despite a significant drop in ice \u2013 where polar bears typically hunt their primary food source: fat-rich seals.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBears 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,\u201d Geoff York, vice president of research and policy at Polar Bears International, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDisturbing bears during this time of year may be more significant for their survival or potential reproductive success if it\u2019s a pregnant or nursing female by causing them to burn calories unnecessarily,\u201d he warned.\n <\/p>\n

\n 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.\n <\/p>\n

\n Governor Lars Fause explained in his statement that when the vessel sailed past the animal \u201cits occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cA person on board then used the ship\u2019s foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The individual has agreed to pay the penalty.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fines for disrupting animals in the Svalbard region have been handed out before.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2024, a tourist was fined 12,500 kroner ($1,300) after attempting to approach a walrus.\n <\/p>\n

\n Members of the public alerted officials and the man was intercepted by the governor\u2019s employees.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person has been fined for sounding a foghorn that woke a slumbering polar bear in Norway\u2019s Svalbard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-585544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}