{"id":641214,"date":"2026-08-17T04:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/641214\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:54:11","slug":"man-fined-over-rs-4-lakh-for-waking-sleeping-polar-bear-with-ship-horn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/641214\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Fined Over Rs 4 Lakh For Waking Sleeping Polar Bear With Ship Horn"},"content":{"rendered":"

A boat operator was slapped with a fine of 50,000 Norwegian kroner (approximately Rs 4.5 to Rs 5 lakh) for waking up a sleeping polar bear using a vessel’s foghorn, the BBC<\/a> reported. The incident took place earlier this month off the coast of Svalbard, which is a remote Norwegian archipelago located around 620 miles from the North Pole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While sailing through a local fjord, individuals aboard the ship spotted a polar bear resting on the shore. Wanting to see the animal move, a person on the vessel deliberately sounded the ship’s loud foghorn. The blast startled the bear, causing it to wake up abruptly and flee the area.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, local authorities were notified, and Lars Fause, the Governor of Svalbard, took immediate legal action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In a statement, Fause said 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,” it added.<\/p>\n

Under the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act, it is strictly illegal to needlessly disturb, pursue, or attract polar bears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The regulations mandate that visitors keep a safe distance from wildlife to avoid causing stress or altering their natural behaviour in their harsh habitat.<\/p>\n

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The offender accepted the violation and agreed to pay the hefty fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local officials didn’t reveal the individual’s name and nationality, but issued a reminder to all tourists and expedition crews visiting the region: polar bears have been a protected species in Svalbard since 1972, and disturbing them carries severe financial consequences.<\/p>\n

This is not an isolated incident, as a tourist was fined 11,500 kroner (\u00a3900) in 2024 for\u00a0getting too close to a walrus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boat operator was slapped with a fine of 50,000 Norwegian kroner (approximately Rs 4.5 to Rs 5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,75941,271136,133,271137],"class_list":["post-641214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-polar-bears","tag-polar-bears-in-svalbard","tag-science","tag-svalbard-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117109068113489887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}