News Forum - Foreigner faces prison for Parrotfishing in Thailand

[Thaiger]

The foreigner seen parrotfishing in the sea off Thailand is facing a five-year prison sentence and a 20,000 baht fine if he is caught. A TikTok video clip of the man emerged on social media yesterday with three parrotfishes, one moray eel, and two other unidentified fish in Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park in Krabi province, causing outrage among Thai netizens who demanded he is severely punished. Netizens slammed the foreigner stating his actions are against the law and were destroying the marine ecosystem. One outraged netizen on Twitter said… “Catching animals in the park area is […]

The story Foreigner faces prison for Parrotfishing in Thailand as seen on Thaiger News.

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[palooka]

Think he should swim the Sa Kaeo river to Cambodia, (Nigerian did it) you only get banned for 3 years from Cambodia. A prebooked ticket from Cambodia to anywhere but Thailand might help too.

[Prosaap]

Look to me he went on a fishing trip with a hired boat as a tourist you dont know where to fish and what fish is out there but the captain of the boat must know he is the one that bring him there he is to blame 

this is copy outrage because the thai take every little fish they can take putting nets everywhere 

they are not aloude to fish close around koh phi phi but in the night time you see many boats fishing with nets taking all the fish 

but typical thai blame somebody else   

Edited August 12, 2022 by Prosaap

[Marble-eye]

Is it legal to go budgie jumping in Thailand.

[PapayaBokBok]

  On 8/12/2022 at 9:19 AM, Prosaap said:

Look to me he went on a fishing trip with a hired boat as a tourist you dont know where to fish and what fish is out there but the captain of the boat must know he is the one that bring him there he is to blame 

this is copy outrage because the thai take every little fish they can take putting nets everywhere 

they are not aloude to fish close around koh phi phi but in the night time you see many boats fishing with nets taking all the fish 

but typical thai blame somebody else   

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Netizens slammed the foreigner stating his actions are against the law and were destroying the marine ecosystem.    5555555555555555555555555555555555.....Where to begin!???

[Grumpish]

Since when have parrot fish been protected? As for fishing in the national parks, the Thai fisherman seem to have no problems "obtaining permits". Back when I was doing a lot of scuba diving around Phuket and Phi Phi it was far from unusual to spend quite a lot of the dive removing abandoned line and net from the coral. 

[HiuMak]

  On 8/12/2022 at 4:34 PM, PapayaBokBok said:

Netizens slammed the foreigner stating his actions are against the law and were destroying the marine ecosystem.    5555555555555555555555555555555555.....Where to begin!???

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can never satisfy everyone.

Posting on social media needs caution now. You never know

[Stevejm]

  On 8/12/2022 at 9:19 AM, Prosaap said:

Look to me he went on a fishing trip with a hired boat as a tourist you dont know where to fish and what fish is out there but the captain of the boat must know he is the one that bring him there he is to blame 

this is copy outrage because the thai take every little fish they can take putting nets everywhere 

they are not aloude to fish close around koh phi phi but in the night time you see many boats fishing with nets taking all the fish 

but typical thai blame somebody else   

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Boasting about it by posting pictures on social media is just asking for trouble and makes it so easy for the cops to prosecute them. What an idiot!

[Marc26]

I'm not a fisherman at all

But I kind of know you shouldn't kill the bright pretty fish

A) because they aren't edible so their is no reason to kill them 

[Stevejm]

  On 8/12/2022 at 10:10 PM, Grumpish said:

Since when have parrot fish been protected? As for fishing in the national parks, the Thai fisherman seem to have no problems "obtaining permits". Back when I was doing a lot of scuba diving around Phuket and Phi Phi it was far from unusual to spend quite a lot of the dive removing abandoned line and net from the coral. 

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I don’t think parrot fish are protected but fishing in a national park clearly isn’t allowed. Presumably the other people that are doing it illegally don’t post photos on social media boasting about their law breaking  

[Stevejm]

  On 8/13/2022 at 2:13 AM, Marc26 said:

I'm not a fisherman at all

But I kind of know you shouldn't kill the bright pretty fish

A) because they aren't edible so their is no reason to kill them 

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I think parrot fish are edible.

https://snorkelingthailand.com/parrot-fish/

[Marble-eye]

  On 8/13/2022 at 2:17 AM, Stevejm said:

I think parrot fish are edible.

https://snorkelingthailand.com/parrot-fish/

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Yes but you'd have a heart of stone to put one in the frying pan while it's saying "who's a pretty boy then".

[Stevejm]

  On 8/13/2022 at 2:43 AM, Marble-eye said:

Yes but you'd have a heart of stone to put one in the frying pan while it's saying "who's a pretty boy then".

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That’s one of the advantages of going to a restaurant isn’t it?

[Giltee]

  On 8/13/2022 at 2:11 AM, Stevejm said:

Boasting about it by posting pictures on social media is just asking for trouble and makes it so easy for the cops to prosecute them. What an idiot!

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Did he know the rules? People are jumping to a lot of conclusions in their rage. If he did he’d be long gone by now. Is this just another xenophobic bash up because he was a farang? Phuket for example, the police were pulling up all farang driving vehicles/ motorcycles, fining them 1000 baht if they didn’t have an international/Thai licence while flagging Thai through without checking licences or registration. One rule for all 

[Noble_Design]

  On 8/13/2022 at 3:40 AM, Giltee said:

Did he know the rules? People are jumping to a lot of conclusions in their rage. If he did he’d be long gone by now. Is this just another xenophobic bash up because he was a farang? Phuket for example, the police were pulling up all farang driving vehicles/ motorcycles, fining them 1000 baht if they didn’t have an international/Thai licence while flagging Thai through without checking licences or registration. One rule for all 

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I'm not siding with the police here but there maybe a reason (although flawed) that foreigners are pulled over more often than locals. First foreigners may not understand some of the driving laws that are special to Thailand, e.g. if you come from a left hand drive country to here you may have some problems adjusting to the driving here. Another thing is in the event of an accident getting compensations is easier if the party at fault is a local with an address compared to say a foreigner who may leave soon.

[Prosaap]

I think the point is he booked a fishing trip its a longtail boat i pretty sure its not his boat he probably had no idea where he go on the trip

the captain of the boat is to blame first because the location second he can tell him to  put the fish back where he gone cook it any way 

i go many time fishing around phi phi if its up to the captain he take every single fish you bring up for soup or even cat food 

about 20 years ago around phi phi was one of the richest fishing grounds now its all gone and not because a farang with a fishing rod

its there own greed that destroy the marine world there 

but a thai like to blame somebody else 

[Fanta]

  On 8/13/2022 at 3:50 AM, Noble_Design said:

I'm not siding with the police here but there maybe a reason (although flawed) that foreigners are pulled over more often than locals. First foreigners may not understand some of the driving laws that are special to Thailand, e.g. if you come from a left hand drive country to here you may have some problems adjusting to the driving here. Another thing is in the event of an accident getting compensations is easier if the party at fault is a local with an address compared to say a foreigner who may leave soon.

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Most Thai cops are racist and underpaid. End of. 

[23RD]

At the end of the day this Falang lacked common sense and didn't do due diligence before his fishing trip and the worse thing about it there's no excuse in this day and age all he had to do was check the Internet to find out the do's and don't about fishing in the local area and Thailand in general. 

It looks like he's fished before so common sense would tell him to check local regulations, permits and what he could fish for.

Minimum six month sentence in The Bangkok Hilton add another six months for the crime of stupidity. 

[KaptainRob]

  On 8/13/2022 at 2:43 AM, Marble-eye said:

Yes but you'd have a heart of stone to put one in the frying pan while it's saying "who's a pretty boy then".

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 Most reef fish are colourful and very good eating.  My favourite when in QLD waters is red throat emperor but I've also enjoyed many parrot fish.  Much prefer eating pretty fish than ugly ones, same same girls.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 8/13/2022 at 3:40 AM, Giltee said:

Did he know the rules? People are jumping to a lot of conclusions in their rage. If he did he’d be long gone by now. Is this just another xenophobic bash up because he was a farang? Phuket for example, the police were pulling up all farang driving vehicles/ motorcycles, fining them 1000 baht if they didn’t have an international/Thai licence while flagging Thai through without checking licences or registration. One rule for all 

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In Phuket Patong about 2 months ago (6pm) my son on another bike and with my daughter on the back of my bike were not even looked at while most all other foreingers were stopped. Could have been how we dressed or looked, but my kids look white and in all standards if that was true we should have been pulled over. Anyway no big deal if we were as we all have our licenses, but they did have a pretty good sized group of foreingers getting da money from them. One reason they pull over foreigners is no helmet and the other is knowing 98% have no license and are money bags. If you are all above board then why worry. If not then just pay the fine and be on your happy way. Big deal.

I was also at Phi Phi island and took a long tail boat out only with my kids and the Thai driver. But for the foreign guy who went fishing there, he was most likely 99.9% with a Thai guy driving the boat and if the money was too good to resist and refuse offered then that is why this happened. Any of the such, the if Thai guy wanted or needed the money more than could say no, the foreinger should have known better than to think ok, and is ultimately going to be the fall person as should be. For me I would never want to harm a beautiful parrot fish, that is unless stranded and hungry.

[Marble-eye]

  On 8/13/2022 at 5:17 AM, KaptainRob said:

 Most reef fish are colourful and very good eating.  My favourite when in QLD waters is red throat emperor but I've also enjoyed many parrot fish.  Much prefer eating pretty fish than ugly ones, same same girls.

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My mate lives in Brisbane, he lived on a boat for many years of his life, loves fishing, he's even got his Thai wife fishing now, she says she enjoys it but I'm not convinced.

But there's nothing like getting up first thing in the morning with the house filled with fried fish aromas, beats the smell of bacon anyday. Now where did I leave that sarcastic emoji.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 8/13/2022 at 5:17 AM, KaptainRob said:

 Most reef fish are colourful and very good eating.  My favourite when in QLD waters is red throat emperor but I've also enjoyed many parrot fish.  Much prefer eating pretty fish than ugly ones, same same girls.

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Yeah, one of my favorite warm water fish to eat is the mahi mahi or dolphin fish. Just depends on where you get it and the situation. Sometimes the plain to ugly ones will actually surpise you though!. 

[ExpatPattaya]

  On 8/12/2022 at 9:19 AM, Prosaap said:

fishing trip with a hired boat as a tourist you dont know where to fish and what fish is out there but the captain of the boat must know he is the one that bring him there he is to blame 

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Simple solution, have the Thai navy put transponders on every boat for hire.  They enter a no fishing area , send out a drone and tell them back off.  If they don't sink the boat with the drone . 

Will curtail this behavior quickly.     Fun for the legal fishing boats and passengers to watch as well 

Drones, not submarines.   Thai military isnt going to get into a major war at sea where submarines are needed. 

[Godders]

People in glass houses. . .

The handful of fish caught by the mindless falang fisherman were literally a drop in the ocean compared with the obscene plunder of the waters around Thailand by domestic fishing fleets.

Yet I don't hear Thais demanding severe punishment for those whose greed has created "one of the most overfished regions on the planet", with some boat owners using slave labour to maximise catches and minimise labour costs.

Don't take my word for it. The facts were reported for all to see in one of Thailand's internationally-renowned newspapers.

Or would reading the truth cause severe indigestion among all those who happily turn a blind eye to the commercial rape of the seas in exchange for cheap seafood?
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/484221/overfishing-driving-slavery-on-thailand-seafood-boats.

[Stevejm]

  On 8/13/2022 at 9:09 AM, Godders said:

People in glass houses. . .

The handful of fish caught by the mindless falang fisherman were literally a drop in the ocean compared with the obscene plunder of the waters around Thailand by domestic fishing fleets.

Yet I don't hear Thais demanding severe punishment for those whose greed has created "one of the most overfished regions on the planet", with some boat owners using slave labour to maximise catches and minimise labour costs.

Don't take my word for it. The facts were reported for all to see in one of Thailand's internationally-renowned newspapers.

Or would reading the truth cause severe indigestion among all those who happily turn a blind eye to the commercial rape of the seas in exchange for cheap seafood?
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/484221/overfishing-driving-slavery-on-thailand-seafood-boats.

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Boasting about it on social media was his downfall.