Let sleeping bears lie……..or pay up. A boat operator near Norway was hit with a fine of over $5,000 for blowing a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear. The vessel was sailing off the coast of the Svalbard archipelago, around 620 miles from the North Pole, when the operator disturbed the animal and caused it to move to another location. Gov. Lars Fause ordered the un-bear-able offender to pay the hefty fine of $5,255, which the unidentified man agreed to do. Under local rules, it’s forbidden to “needlessly disturb, attract, or pursue a polar bear,” which was declared a protected species in 1972. Melting ice has threatened the polar bears’ habitats in recent years, but scientists reported in January that bears in the area are thriving and even gaining weight.
