Record Fine for Waking a Polar Bear With a Foghorn

On Norway's Svalbard islands, someone blew a ship's foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear — and was fined NOK 50,000 (£3,890). Governor Lars Fause said the person paid. That beats past fines: NOK 20,000 each for two wildlife guides in 2024, and NOK 11,500 for a tourist who got too close to a walrus. Only about 250 polar bears remain there, a 2015 count found.