Copenhagen, Denmark – Norwegian authorities on Monday defended the actions of guards from a German cruise ship that killed a polar bear that had attacked and injured a crew member, saying they at first tried to scare it away.
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Police spokesman Ole Jakob Malmo said two members of the 12-man crew that set foot on the most northern island of the Svalbard archipelago ahead of tourists on Saturday first tried to ward off the bear “by shouting and making loud noises as well as firing a signal pistol, but to no effect.”
A 42-year-old German man who was not identified sustained minor head injuries from the attack, Malmo said.
The incident sparked international outrage, with animal rights activists saying that it was wrong to begin with to let tourists from the MS Bremen cruise ship encroach upon territory known as a habitat for the vulnerable species.
The German cruise ship operator Hapag Lloyd Cruises said on its Facebook page that the purpose of the landing on Svalbard was not “to serve the purpose of polar bear observation, on the contrary: polar bears are only observed from aboard ships, from a safe distance.”
British comedian Ricky Gervais took to Twitter to call the tourists “morons,” while another user, Jane Roberts, said that if such tourism was banned, guards “wouldn’t be needed to protect gawking tourists & polar bears would be left in peace & not shot dead merely to satisfy a photo op.”
The archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole is known for its stunning snow-covered mountains, fjords and glaciers, and is a popular cruise ship destination.
On its Web site, the office for the archipelago’ governor says bears may appear anywhere on Svalbard and urges people “to stay as far away as possible to avoid situations that could be dangerous for you and for the bear” if one encounters one of the estimated 20,000- 25,000 bears that live in the Arctic.
Svalbard is dotted with warnings about polar bears. Visitors who choose to sleep outdoors receive stern warnings from authorities that people must carry firearms while moving outside of settlements.
In 2015, a polar bear dragged a Czech tourist out of his tent as he and others were camping north of Longyearbyen — Svalbard’s the main settlement — clawing his back before being driven away by gunshots. Jakub Moravec who was slightly injured, was among a group of six on a combined ski and snow scooter trip on the remote islands. The bear was eventually found and killed by local authorities.
The animal killed Saturday was transported to Longyearbyen to be routinely examined, Malmo said.
I like animals; however, if an animal comes to kill you, one is justified in killing it first. This was not a case of a mamma bear defending her cubs. If the guards didn’t kill the polar bear, not only would it have attacked and possibly killed them, but it could have later attacked the tourists from the ship. Of course, there will be the usual animal rights activists, who will beat their chests, at the destruction of the poor polar bear. They are the same crowd, who protested the extermination of the Canadian Geese, following the downing of the U.S. Air flight over NYC, into the Hudson River, in 2009.
More outcry and trauma from the Europeans over shooting one bear, than of the deaths of millions of Jews during the Shoah.
When I was at sea in remote places we were issued powerful stun/tranquilizer weapons…and that was decades ago…killing an animal is only necessary when a crew is not issued less lethal uses of force.
Just wait and see what happens when these people find out that the bear is now a rug and his head is hanging over the fireplace!
Poor animal, as a animal rights activist and person of compassion it hurts me to see majestic animals killed unlike the beasts of islam