News Forum - Foreigner faces prison for Parrotfishing in Thailand

[Stevejm]

5 hours ago, Fanta said:

Most Thai cops are racist and underpaid. End of. 

Underpaid yes which encourages corruption. Racism? Why? This thread is about a stupid farang who broke the law fishing in a national park and was stupid enough to boast about it on social media so  if he does get charged it will be because of his own stupidity not racism. People all over the world are so self obsessed that they can’t control themselves and boast about breaking the law on the internet then wonder why they are getting busted. I say Somnumnaa

[Fanta]

I should have cut your reply so you knew exactly what I was replying to

”I'm not siding with the police here but there maybe a reason (although flawed) that foreigners are pulled over more often than locals.”

The muppet fish catcher deserves what he gets. The typical tourist motorist - perhaps not treated equally. Maybe discriminatory is more appropriate than racist.…

[Stevejm]

4 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

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.

I know what you mean about not being stopped.I think cops have a sixth sense about who is likely to be trouble. An expat who lives locally and is riding around sensibly and confidently probably isn’t riding without a license or insurance and isn’t likely to cause problems for the locals and probably isn’t worth bothering for nothing. In my experience a lot of tourists who rent bikes haven’t even ridden a bike before and exude incompetence and are high risk for causing accidents then doing a runner if they hurt someone. Getting pulled by the cops might just make them think twice about doing something stupid. In the past I have been stopped by the police driving and interviewed in Thai about what I was doing in Thailand ( working) etc. no money changed hands and he wished me a good day.

[Stevejm]

20 minutes ago, Fanta said:

I should have cut your reply so you knew exactly what I was replying to

”I'm not siding with the police here but there maybe a reason (although flawed) that foreigners are pulled over more often than locals.”

The muppet fish catcher deserves what he gets. The typical tourist motorist - perhaps not treated equally. Maybe discriminatory is more appropriate than racist.…

Maybe discriminatory with a reason. See my reply to @HolyCowCm 

[Noble_Design]

13 minutes ago, Stevejm said:

I know what you mean about not being stopped.I think cops have a sixth sense about who is likely to be trouble. An expat who lives locally and is riding around sensibly and confidently probably isn’t riding without a license or insurance and isn’t likely to cause problems for the locals and probably isn’t worth bothering for nothing. In my experience a lot of tourists who rent bikes haven’t even ridden a bike before and exude incompetence and are high risk for causing accidents then doing a runner if they hurt someone. Getting pulled by the cops might just make them think twice about doing something stupid. In the past I have been stopped by the police driving and interviewed in Thai about what I was doing in Thailand ( working) etc. no money changed hands and he wished me a good day.

My own experience: Me and my boss were heading back to Bkk after a night of drinking and entertaining customers at Pattaya. My boss had drink a lot that night whereas I drank only a little so I'm the one entrusted to do the driving.

Before exiting Pattaya we met a police roadblock. The police asked if I was drinking, I was hesitant to answer yes but my boss being the Pattaya/Thailand veteran answered yes. And out came the breathalyzer.

By that time it was already a good 1.5 hours since my last drink because after ending our bar hopping, we stopped by a kebab shop. I can already feel that whatever alcohol effects on me were pretty much gone by then.

But still maybe due to me thinking the police might cause me trouble no matter how little alcohol remained in my body I decided to blow halfheartedly into the breathalyzer. The police obviously being veteran in countless roadblocks and having met many drunk drivers probably figured out what I was attempting to do. So he asked me to blow again but harder.

I did it and the result was by alcohol level didn't exceed the legal limit and thus I was allowed to drive further. The thing of this story is he could have caused me trouble but he didn't even though I am a foreigner with some alcohol in my breath (but still within legal limit).

Disclaimer: I was driving my boss' shiny new GLE during the above incident so maybe that also helped a bit?

[Stevejm]

9 minutes ago, Noble_Design said:

My own experience: Me and my boss were heading back to Bkk after a night of drinking and entertaining customers at Pattaya. My boss had drink a lot that night whereas I drank only a little so I'm the one entrusted to do the driving.

Before exiting Pattaya we met a police roadblock. The police asked if I was drinking, I was hesitant to answer yes but my boss being the Pattaya/Thailand veteran answered yes. And out came the breathalyzer.

By that time it was already a good 1.5 hours since my last drink because after ending our bar hopping, we stopped by a kebab shop. I can already feel that whatever alcohol effects on me were pretty much gone by then.

But still maybe due to me thinking the police might cause me trouble no matter how little alcohol remained in my body I decided to blow halfheartedly into the breathalyzer. The police obviously being veteran in countless roadblocks and having met many drunk drivers probably figured out what I was attempting to do. So he asked me to blow again but harder.

I did it and the result was by alcohol level didn't exceed the legal limit and thus I was allowed to drive further. The thing of this story is he could have caused me trouble but he didn't even though I am a foreigner with some alcohol in my breath (but still within legal limit).

Disclaimer: I was driving my boss' shiny new GLE during the above incident so maybe that also helped a bit?

I think the fact that you blew under the limit was the deciding factor rather than the car you were driving. You were lucky that after trying to dodge the breathalyzer the cop didn’t decide to find something wrong to bust you for. Cops everywhere typically don’t appreciate smart Alecs and can often find something wrong if they want to.

[Marc26]

10 hours ago, 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.

I honestly see way more locals pulled over than foreigners at pretty much every single road block

 

Also, people seem to forget or not realize how many police checkpoints there are in non-tourist areas

That far exceed any that are in tourist areas

 

My BIL's live in Samut Prakan 

They are pulled over all the time and drug tested

 

We go out in Singburi and always have a DD that doesn't drink at all that night because of road blocks

 

 

[Marc26]

9 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

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!. 

Being from New England I'm not a fan of warm water fish

 

Just don't have the sweetness that cold water fish have

 

Also. I find that cold water fish, lobsters have a much firmer texture, which I prefer

 

Warm water fish always seem mushy to me 

[HolyCowCm]

2 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Being from New England I'm not a fan of warm water fish

Just don't have the sweetness that cold water fish have

Also. I find that cold water fish, lobsters have a much firmer texture, which I prefer

Warm water fish always seem mushy to me 

I love cold water fish as well. Nothing like cod or yellow or bluefin tuna. But Mahi mahi used to be one of my favorite burritos ever when living in San Fran Area. Sooo good. 

[Noble_Design]

On 8/13/2022 at 9:31 PM, Marc26 said:

I honestly see way more locals pulled over than foreigners at pretty much every single road block

Also, people seem to forget or not realize how many police checkpoints there are in non-tourist areas

That far exceed any that are in tourist areas

My BIL's live in Samut Prakan 

They are pulled over all the time and drug tested

We go out in Singburi and always have a DD that doesn't drink at all that night because of road blocks

That's true, crooked cops will prey on anyone whether they are foreigners or locals. 

[NorskTiger]

One of Thailand's prime notes of reputation is the stunning waters, fish and beaches. When a fool like this kills a precious fish and then boasts about it on some social media nonsense, he deserves what he gets. 

   The Thai government is interested in projecting a message that it cares about the environment and wants to protect it's pristine nature, (neither of which are incorrect) so this dork is likely to be in trouble if they catch him. 

     I don't get it when people complain about Thai police being corrupt or what have you. Bangkok has to be one of the safest, if not the safest million++ city in the world where there is little tolerance for the nonsense in most Western cities of today. Just think of the BTS how clean and orderly it is at all times. Thailand wants to protect the image of a safe, legally strict, while welcoming country and they must be doing something right with all the tourism coming here. 

 

[DesperateOldHand]

Hanging in a public square would suffice. 

[Loong]

Strange that in many comments here they talk about him boasting on social media.

I haven't seen any reports that he was boasting about anything so why do many people think that he was?

As far as I understand he was unaware that he was fishing in a restricted area and was simply posting about his fishing trip.

The one person who should be held full accountable is the Thai captain of the boat. He must have known that fishing was not allowed there so why take the foreigner there to fish?

I have been on fishing trips in Thailand and the captain just took us somewhere. I didn't know exactly where, why should I? It didn't occur to me to find out the name of the area we were going and then check whether fishing was allowed there. All these people complaining about the foreigner, I bet that it wouldn't occur to them to check either.

[Ramanathan.P]

He can always apologize in court to the judge and Thai people and promise to clean the beach for a week. Fore sure he will be pardoned as Thais are generally soft hearted people

[Janneman]

Good advertisement to attract more wealthy foreigners. But they should all learn to read Thai so they can understand the signs that say 'no fishing in this area'.

[Stevejm]

20 minutes ago, Janneman said:

Good advertisement to attract more wealthy foreigners. But they should all learn to read Thai so they can understand the signs that say 'no fishing in this area'.

Here’s an example of a sign from a Thailand park

[JJJ]

I don’t understand why this guy didn’t cut short his Thailand trip as soon as this happened.  

[Janneman]

1 hour ago, Stevejm said:

Here’s an example of a sign from a Thailand park

That's what I mean, a very clear sign. But parrotfish live in the sea I think. This does not look like that.

And anyhow, the skipper of the boat he rented should have known where to fish, and where not.

[Stevejm]

3 hours ago, Janneman said:

And anyhow, the skipper of the boat he rented should have known where to fish, and where not.

Yes he should and strictly he probably has some legal liability for taking his customer there but probably wouldn’t be prosecuted because he is probably living hand to mouth. Also he probably isn’t foolish enough to post images of himself breaking the law online

[Janneman]

5 hours ago, JJJ said:

I don’t understand why this guy didn’t cut short his Thailand trip as soon as this happened.  

He is Dutch... He paid for say 21 days in Thailand so he stays the full 21 days in Thailand. No matter what happens.

[Skip]

On 8/13/2022 at 10:50 AM, Noble_Design said:

  First foreigners may not understand some of the driving laws that are special to Thailand,  

You really don't believe what you posted do you?  Thai's don't even know what the "driving laws" are because there is no enforcement against them... ever.

[Skip]

The only thing that I can see here that he needs to be prosecuted for is that outfit that he has on...

[Stevejm]

17 minutes ago, Skip said:

You really don't believe what you posted do you?  Thai's don't even know what the "driving laws" are because there is no enforcement against them... ever.

That is just a ridiculous statement. No enforcement… ever. Under enforced maybe. The topic is about fishing regulations anyway so I don’t understand why @Noble_Designwas talking about driving.

[Mandy]

On 8/13/2022 at 12:26 PM, HolyCowCm said:

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.

After reading a comment about the police on here, I purchased a very visible dash cam, I've been stopped, then waved on immediately, many thanks to whomever suggested it!

[Noble_Design]

2 hours ago, Stevejm said:

That is just a ridiculous statement. No enforcement… ever. Under enforced maybe. The topic is about fishing regulations anyway so I don’t understand why @Noble_Designwas talking about driving.

I didn't mean to go off topic but the driving stuffs were my reply to Giltee's earlier statement:

 

On 8/13/2022 at 10:40 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