guard for Arctic cruise channel passengers hit and killed a polar bear on the island of Spitsbergen in the removed Svalbard region of Norway , leave incondemnation on social mediaand fleet apologia from the tour of duty manipulator .
Per the Guardian , the Joint Rescue Coordination for Northern Norway tweeted that tourists on dining table the MS Bremen “ landed on the northernmost island of the Svalbard archipelago , a part between mainland Norway and the North Pole know for its glaciers , Greenland caribou and diametrical bears . ” ( That ’s about 1,200 miles north of mainland Norway . ) Negar Etminan , a representative for German cruise operator Hapag Lloyd Cruises , told the paper that two diametrical bear guards had also landed on the island before one “ was assail by a polar bear and injured on his head , ” and the second guard shot the bear utter “ in an act of self - denial . ”
In astatement on Facebook , the cruise crinkle ’s tarradiddle was slightly dissimilar and involved four safeguard , not two , and a failed endeavor to “ evict the fauna ” before opening fire :
The incident pass when the four - person gelid bear guard squad , who are always on gameboard for these expedition cruises as ask by law , prepared for a shore leave . One of the guards was by chance snipe by a gelid bear that had not been fleck and he was unable to react himself . As the attack of the other guards to force out the animate being , unfortunately , were not successful , there had to be intervention for reasons of ego - defence and to protect the animation of the attacked someone . The injured mortal was straightaway provide with medical guardianship and fly to a hospital with a delivery helicopter .
Hapag Lloyd Cruises spokesperson Moritz Krause accentuate that “ We completely repent what go on ” in an consultation with theNew York Times , but that no tourist were involved and that the ship’s company is “ very aware of its duty when traveling in environmentally sore areas and respects all nature and wildlife . ”
picture of the slain bear propagate widely online , with predictable choler for the turn operator . Wildlife environmentalist Jeff Corwintold CNNthe incident was “ tragic ” and “ When you are in this ecosystem as a tourist , as an explorer or as a scientist , you have the responsibility to follow the protocols to control that you stay safe and that you do n’t interfere with the wild behavior of gelid bears . ”
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1023572058528210944
According to the Guardian , “ Arctic touristry has rise aggressively in the last few years ” and it is now enrol its most active annual phase . Alongside cargo ships , Arctic tourism is sometimesconsidered a threatto wildlife , as the part is becoming more temperate and thus conformable to human traffic . The Arctic is also warming attwice the rateof the rest of the globe , concord to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , which has bring forth a glut of tourists eager to see it before it lose its pristine nature . Rising contact between humans and polar bear has often resulted in bad news for the latter , withReuters reportingin 2016 about a growing issue of polar bear shootings .
glacial bears are not doing well in general decently now , with climate change reducing arctic sea ice at a rate of14 pct per decadeand leaving the animal with a shrinking home ground and less access to prey like seal . A studyreleased earlier this yearfound that many icy bears seemed to bestruggling to maintain weightiness , whileanother foundthat bear range were becoming isolated from one another , raise the odds of local extinction . consort to theIUCN Red List , polar bear are currently considered vulnerable with a very rough appraisal of 26,000 in the wilderness , though it is gauging their abundance with any accuracy is considered “ expensive and difficult because the brute often occur at low-pitched density in distant habitats . ”
However , they are very serious predator , and with 3,000 on the island , the Norse governing tell they outnumber mass , per CNN . TheNorwegian Polar Instituteurges everyone visiting Svalbard to expect weaponry “ such as a large - game rifle and ammo for self - defence , flare pass gun or an emergency signal flash playpen for driving off polar bears and tripwire with flare for camping . ”
[ The Guardian ]
AnimalsClimate changeconservationScience
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