2026-08-13T07:46:31-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/法新社
当地官员周四表示，挪威北极斯瓦尔巴群岛一名男子因使用船用雾号叫醒一只熟睡的北极熊，被处以5255美元罚款。
事件发生在本月早些时候，当时一艘船只在斯瓦尔巴群岛东北部的峡湾航行，该地距离北极约620英里。
该领地总督在一份声明中表示：“船上人员发现一只北极熊在陆地上熟睡。”
他补充道：“船上一名男子随后使用了船用雾号，惊醒了这只动物，它随后移到了另一个地点。”
总督办公室下令该男子缴纳这笔高额罚款，对方已同意缴纳。该男子的身份和国籍均未公开。
根据当地法规，“不得无故惊扰、吸引或追逐北极熊”，北极熊于1972年被列为斯瓦尔巴群岛的保护物种。
2025年4月9日，挪威斯瓦尔巴群岛东部斯匹次卑尔根岛附近冰川上的海冰上行走的雄性北极熊。奥利维耶·莫兰 / 法新社通过盖蒂图片社拍摄
2015年进行的上一次科学评估中，该群岛共统计到约260只北极熊。
北极熊种群繁衍兴旺
近年来，气候变化和海冰融化威胁着北极熊的栖息地，但科学家在1月报告称，斯瓦尔巴群岛的北极熊种群繁衍兴旺，甚至体重有所增加。
挪威极地研究所的高级科学家乔恩·阿尔斯带领研究团队，在1992年至2019年间细致追踪了斯瓦尔巴群岛近800只北极熊的体重和体型。他们发现这些极地巨兽身体状况良好，能够存活并继续繁育幼崽。
“我当时相当惊讶，”阿尔斯告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，“因为从我开始研究以来，海冰已经减少了这么多。”
多年来，科学家一直警告称，海冰面积萎缩可能会让北极熊陷入险境，因为它们需要利用海冰作为平台来捕猎海豹。
“我们中的一些人原本预测它们早就该陷入困境了，”阿尔斯说道。
但他的团队的研究结果表明，北极熊正在适应面积更小的海冰区域，甚至可能帮助它们更高效地捕猎，因为它们的猎物会集中在更小的范围内。
本报道另有供稿。
A boat operator used a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear. They were fined over $5,000.
2026-08-13T07:46:31-0400 / CBS/AFP
A person in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic has been fined $5,255 for using a foghorn to wake a sleeping polar bear, local officials said Thursday.
The incident took place earlier this month when a vessel was sailing in a fjord in northeastern Svalbard, around 620 miles from the North Pole.
“Its occupants are said to have spotted a polar bear sleeping on land,” the governor of the territory said in a statement.
“A person on board then used the ship’s foghorn, waking the animal, which moved to another location,” he added.
The governor’s office ordered the individual to pay the hefty fine, which the person agreed to do. Neither the identity nor nationality of the person has been disclosed.
Under local regulations, “it is forbidden to needlessly disturb, attract or pursue a polar bear,” which was declared a protected species in Svalbard in 1972.
A male polar bear walks on the sea ice near glaciers in eastern Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, on April 9, 2025. Olivier MORIN /AFP via Getty Images
Some 260 polar bears were counted in the archipelago during the last scientific estimate, carried out in 2015.
Polar bear population thriving
Climate change and melting ice have threatened polar bears’ habitat in recent years, but scientists reported in January that the bears in Svalbard are thriving, and even packing on the pounds.
Jon Aars, a senior scientist with the Norwegian Polar Institute, led a team of researchers who meticulously tracked the weight and size of nearly 800 bears in Svalbard between 1992 and 2019. They found the polar giants to be in good shape, able to survive and to continue raising new cubs.
“I was quite surprised,” Aars told CBS News, “because we have lost so much sea ice since I started.”
For years scientists have raised the alarm that shrinking sea ice cover could put polar bears at risk, as they use the ice as a platform from which to hunt for seals.
“Some of us would predict that they should be in trouble already,” Aars said.
But what his team has found suggests the bears are adapting to smaller ice patches, and it may even be helping them hunt more efficiently as their prey is concentrated in smaller areas.
contributed to this report.
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