A person has been fined for using a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, a local official said.<\/p>\n
The incident happened earlier this month after someone sounded the alarm from onboard a vessel, which was sailing in a fjord in northwestern Svalbard – about 1,000 km (620 miles) from the North Pole.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a person – who has not been named – was fined 50,000 kroner (\u00a33,890) over the incident, the governor of the territory confirmed. <\/p>\n
Under local regulations in the region, “it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear”, which was declared a protected species in Svalbard in 1972.<\/p>\n
About 250 polar bears were counted in the archipelago during the last scientific estimate, carried out in 2015.<\/p>\n
In a statement, governor Lars Fause said when the vessel sailed past the animal “its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land”. <\/p>\n
“A person on board then used the ship’s foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location.” <\/p>\n
The individual has agreed to pay the fine.<\/p>\n
It is not the first time people have been fined for disrupting animals in the Svalbard region. <\/p>\n