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 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.
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 300 meters (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 500 meters (1,640 feet).
