Polar Bear shot dead in Svalbard.

[Josh-H]

The locals, government etc. encourage and advertise interaction between their local wild animals and tourists who come to spend their money to help the local economy.

This is not true in Svalbard. 1. You cant leave town without a weapon (its illegal to do so) and 2. approaching a polar bear is strictly forbidden under any circumstances. Svalbard has very tight rules governing human behaviour around Polar Bears (much tighter than elsewhere). Tourism is active of course, but its tightly controlled.

[Alan Klein]

I read Google's translation of the article.  It wasn't clear who received the fine.  Was it the local guide?  Or was it the leader of the camping party from the Czech Republic who was fined?  (no local guide).  If it was a guide, who is licensed by Svalbard, then the fine could be appropriate.  He should have known better and done a better job to prevent the situation from happening.   

However, if it was a visitor, then expecting visitors not to make mistakes seems like hoping too much.  This was not a case of people deliberately approaching too close to the bears that you stated was forbidden.  The three-person party was legally camping and asleep in their tent.  They had set up a perimeter alarm fence system which is a normal requirement when camping in bear territory.   Apparently, the alert fence  was elevated too high and the bear slipped under it without setting off the alarm.   It seems like they took reasonable precautions.  After all, I'm sure they didn't intend to be attacked in their sleep.  They just mis-judged where to set the height of the fence. 

The fine is what interests me.  If it was for a visitor from Czech and not an official guide, what better reason to use a guide then being faced with a $10,000 fine.  Maybe  the fine was pushed by the polar bear tourism industry to get visitors to use expensive local guides and companies rather than go out on their own and spend less money locally.    

[Josh-H]

Alan, with respect you making assumptions and not dealing with facts. I was there when this occurred and I am fully armed with all the facts. The local guides all knew this bear was hunting in the area, in fact those campers in question were warned when they were setting up camp that they were in a dangerous area and that there was a bear hunting in the area. They ignored the warnings and set up anyway. They set up a trip wire improperly and did not post a guard. It is not reasonable to set up in an area a bear is know. To be hunting whilst ignoring warnings from local guides.

As to the fine - it was levied against the guide. I am unsure if it was a local guide or an import however. Of this I cannot be sure.  The point of this is that had this party heeded the warnings they were given this would not have occurred.

[Alan Klein]

Well, I said in my post if there was a guide, then he was responsible.  Since they only fined him, that's OK by me.  The problem is your original comments made it appear that the visitors who are basically layman when it comes to polar bears were being accused by you of doing stupid and irresponsible things on their own.  It's up to the guide to make sure responsible camping and trip wires were set up and that guards where in place.  He failed to do his job.  Did they also take away his license? 

[Josh-H]

Well, I said in my post if there was a guide, then he was responsible.  Since they only fined him, that's OK by me.  The problem is your original comments made it appear that the visitors who are basically layman when it comes to polar bears were being accused by you of doing stupid and irresponsible things on their own.  It's up to the guide to make sure responsible camping and trip wires were set up and that guards where in place.  He failed to do his job.  Did they also take away his license? 

I am unsure if they have taken away the guides license. As I said, this part of the whole incident is an unknown to me as I do not know wether the guide was a local (I highly doubt it though) or an import (seems much more likely).

[Rainer SLP]

[Alan Klein]

Speaking of setting up fence alert system to warn of bears approaching reminds me of this old joke slightly modified for this thread:

In light of the rising frequency of human/polar bear confrontations, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and be alert for bears while in the field. ...We advise that outdoorsmen wear small bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them, and to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter....

It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and polar bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and fur. Polar bear droppings have little bells in it and smell like pepper.

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