National park chief hunting Chinese "urchin bashing" tourists

[webfact]

National park chief hunting Chinese "urchin bashing" tourists

 

 

National Park officials in southern Thailand are hunting a group of Chinese tourists after they took several urchins out of the sea. 

 

They then bashed them and left them on the beach on Adang-Rawee Island in the Tarutao National Park.

 

Park chief Kanchanaphan Khamhaeng said there were signs in many languages including Chinese to leave the aquatic life alone. 

 

A police report was filed. The Chinese face a fine of between 5,000 and 50,000 baht. 

 

Kanchanaphan said that cases like this were always followed up. He thanked an environmentalist called Somsak, 38, for bringing it to the attention of the authorities. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-05-23

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[toenail]

Are the Chinese so clueless or disrespectful once they leave China because in their communistic society back home everything is so controlled?  They seem to lack common sense where ever they go. 

[richard_smith237]

More disproportionate penalties and Faux-Outrage at foreigners actions in Thailand... 

 

Its agreed that this is poor behavior, but a fine of 5000-50,000 baht just seems like madness when someone (a Thai) gets charged 500 baht for assault. 

 

It really is high time that Thailand gets its fines and penalties aligned with some balance and common sense. 

 

 

We were holidaying on Koh Samet, my Son (4 years old at the time) collected some shells, dead coral and some sand in a jar to take home and back to school (they were tasked with collecting something to talk about on their return). When leaving the resort, the staff told us to hide the jar of sand and shells. Apparently a few weeks before hand some western tourists were spotted with a Jar of sand by the National Park guards and charged 40,000 baht (if the comments were correct) for taking sand from a National Park.

 

It would seem that these excessive fines are only levied direct at foreigners, in this case as anti-foreigner faux-outrage, in other examples as nothing more than extortion.... You never see Thai's charged with littering, fly-tipping, knocking over a mannequin, or dropping a cigarette on Sukhumvit Rd (in Bangkok) - perhaps its not news worthy, but more realistically, it doesn't happen. 

 

I do think we (as foreigners) get treated very well in Thailand, but news such as this seems publicise a 'holier than thou' - 'we Thai's would never do such things' approach.. similar to the recent reports that the litter washing up on the beaches was blamed on tourists.

 

It is about time Thailand took a hard look at itself and calms down on the unnecessary prejudice - the Chinese are the 'new golden egg' for Thailands tourism, they are not the best behaved, but neither are the Thai's when on holiday in Thailand, things such as this are not worthy of a 50,000 baht fine regardless of your opinions on Chinese in Thailand. 

Edited May 23, 2019 by richard_smith237

[Sticky Wicket]

I was expecting the article to be about street urchins

[Galactus]

54 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

More disproportionate penalties and Faux-Outrage at foreigners actions in Thailand... 

 

Its agreed that this is poor behavior, but a fine of 5000-50,000 baht just seems like madness when someone (a Thai) gets charged 500 baht for assault. 

 

It really is high time that Thailand gets its fines and penalties aligned with some balance and common sense. 

 

 

We were holidaying on Koh Samet, my Son (4 years old at the time) collected some shells, dead coral and some sand in a jar to take home and back to school (they were tasked with collecting something to talk about on their return). When leaving the resort, the staff told us to hide the jar of sand and shells. Apparently a few weeks before hand some western tourists were spotted with a Jar of sand by the National Park guards and charged 40,000 baht (if the comments were correct) for taking sand from a National Park.

 

It would seem that these excessive fines are only levied direct at foreigners, in this case as anti-foreigner faux-outrage, in other examples as nothing more than extortion.... You never see Thai's charged with littering, fly-tipping, knocking over a mannequin, or dropping a cigarette on Sukhumvit Rd (in Bangkok) - perhaps its not news worthy, but more realistically, it doesn't happen. 

 

I do think we (as foreigners) get treated very well in Thailand, but news such as this seems publicise a 'holier than thou' - 'we Thai's would never do such things' approach.. similar to the recent reports that the litter washing up on the beaches was blamed on tourists.

 

It is about time Thailand took a hard look at itself and calms down on the unnecessary prejudice - the Chinese are the 'new golden egg' for Thailands tourism, they are not the best behaved, but neither are the Thai's when on holiday in Thailand, things such as this are not worthy of a 50,000 baht fine regardless of your opinions on Chinese in Thailand. 

 

i guess you have no idea!

there will be no sand in the future there! if every single tourist going to Koh Samet collects a jar of beach sand!

think about it, millions of jar full of beach sand disappears every year and beach is gone.

rings a bell? if not, hope they fine you next time to make the bells ringing.

[richard_smith237]

58 minutes ago, Galactus said:

 

i guess you have no idea!

there will be no sand in the future there! if every single tourist going to Koh Samet collects a jar of beach sand!

think about it, millions of jar full of beach sand disappears every year and beach is gone.

rings a bell? if not, hope they fine you next time to make the bells ringing.

So lets think about it...  just so we have an idea....

 

While laws do exist in many places against taking sand, the volume of sand on a beach is colossal, the amount potentially removed is extremely minimal. Issues such as longshore drift move sand in 1000's of order of magnitude greater than any impact 'tourists collecting a jar of sand' could ever have. 

 

---------

 

Ok - think about this... just so you have an idea...  

 

Using Koh Samet as an example as it has some of Thailands most visited beaches, it has 700,000 tourist visitors per year (and its where this extortion happens).

If every single one of these tourists took a 1/2 Litre jar of sand (500cm3) home with them that would be 350,000,000 cm3 of sand, thats 350m3 of sand. 

 

Imagine a 1km long beach x 35meters wide. 

The top 1cm layer of sand across the beach is equivalent to 350m3 of sand. 

 

Every single visitor to Koh Samet taking a large jar of sand 'could' make a 1cm deep impact on just one of Koh Samet beaches.

 

Not every tourist would take a 'jar of sand' - a debatable point, but for the sake of argument lets assume 1 in 10 tourists would take a jar of sand. 

That would be equivalent to 1mm layer of sand being removed annually from Koh Samet main Sai Keaw beach. 

 

But, not every tourist who visits Koh Samet stays on a single beach Sai Keaw Beach) there are 14 'white sand' beaches on Koh Samet, so the figure would still be much less than that. 

 

It could be argued that of Koh Samet's 700,000 annual visitors, 30% stay at Sai Keaw Beach:

i.e.  210,000 annual visitors, and if we take the same assumption that 1 in 10 may take a jar of sand thats 21,000 jars of sand - thats equivalent to a layer of 0.3mm of sand.

 

If you can follow the logic and the basic calculation you can see that tourists taking sand from a beach is completely insignificant. There are bigger concerns... i.e. resorts not disposing of their waste water, litter etc...  the Park officials are nothing more than money hungry, these examples show they care nothing of the environment and everything for extorting tourists. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by richard_smith237

[Bluespunk]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The Chinese face a fine of between 5,000 and 50,000 baht

Let's hope it's the upper end of that spectrum.

[PingRoundTheWorld]

Remember Thailand - this is the kind of tourists you were asking for and encouraging. Good luck with that.

 

As far as taking sand from the beach - just LOL. Even if every tourist took a jar home it would take decades to make a noticeable impact, and even if it did then just import more sand. In economic terms that jar of sand would cost a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of 1 baht to replace. Want tourists? then pay up for upkeep because guess what - tourists ruin nature.

[cnx101]

5 hours ago, Sticky Wicket said:

I was expecting the article to be about street urchins

I did myself thought it was a bunch of Chinese Street kids beating up tourists haha

[JimSaints]

Please lets hear from TAT if they still try to lure these savages into Thailand …

[AhFarangJa]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A police report was filed. The Chinese face a fine of between 5,000 and 50,000 baht.

Correct me if I am wrong please, but wasn't a Russian Lady fined 100,000 Baht last year for feeding fish..........or do Chinese get a favoured discount......

[Tropposurfer]

3 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

So lets think about it...  just so we have an idea....

 

While laws do exist in many places against taking sand, the volume of sand on a beach is colossal, the amount potentially removed is extremely minimal. Issues such as longshore drift move sand in 1000's of order of magnitude greater than any impact 'tourists collecting a jar of sand' could ever have. 

 

---------

 

Ok - think about this... just so you have an idea...  

 

Using Koh Samet as an example as it has some of Thailands most visited beaches, it has 700,000 tourist visitors per year (and its where this extortion happens).

If every single one of these tourists took a 1/2 Litre jar of sand (500cm3) home with them that would be 350,000,000 cm3 of sand, thats 350m3 of sand. 

 

Imagine a 1km long beach x 35meters wide. 

The top 1cm layer of sand across the beach is equivalent to 350m3 of sand. 

 

Every single visitor to Koh Samet taking a large jar of sand 'could' make a 1cm deep impact on just one of Koh Samet beaches.

 

Not every tourist would take a 'jar of sand' - a debatable point, but for the sake of argument lets assume 1 in 10 tourists would take a jar of sand. 

That would be equivalent to 1mm layer of sand being removed annually from Koh Samet main Sai Keaw beach. 

 

But, not every tourist who visits Koh Samet stays on a single beach Sai Keaw Beach) there are 14 'white sand' beaches on Koh Samet, so the figure would still be much less than that. 

 

It could be argued that of Koh Samet's 700,000 annual visitors, 30% stay at Sai Keaw Beach:

i.e.  210,000 annual visitors, and if we take the same assumption that 1 in 10 may take a jar of sand thats 21,000 jars of sand - thats equivalent to a layer of 0.3mm of sand.

 

If you can follow the logic and the basic calculation you can see that tourists taking sand from a beach is completely insignificant. There are bigger concerns... i.e. resorts not disposing of their waste water, litter etc...  the Park officials are nothing more than money hungry, these examples show they care nothing of the environment and everything for extorting tourists. 

 

 

 

 

Damn I wish I could calculate like that ????

its more the rubbish tourists leave that annoys me.

watched in Similan islands not long back at how tourists mostly Chinese threw crap away and didn’t heed one of the dozens of notification by tour and national park staff about leaving only our footprints.

its my planet to you crass buggers !

[Krataiboy]

5 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

So lets think about it...  just so we have an idea....

 

While laws do exist in many places against taking sand, the volume of sand on a beach is colossal, the amount potentially removed is extremely minimal. Issues such as longshore drift move sand in 1000's of order of magnitude greater than any impact 'tourists collecting a jar of sand' could ever have. 

 

---------

 

Ok - think about this... just so you have an idea...  

 

Using Koh Samet as an example as it has some of Thailands most visited beaches, it has 700,000 tourist visitors per year (and its where this extortion happens).

If every single one of these tourists took a 1/2 Litre jar of sand (500cm3) home with them that would be 350,000,000 cm3 of sand, thats 350m3 of sand. 

 

Imagine a 1km long beach x 35meters wide. 

The top 1cm layer of sand across the beach is equivalent to 350m3 of sand. 

 

Every single visitor to Koh Samet taking a large jar of sand 'could' make a 1cm deep impact on just one of Koh Samet beaches.

 

Not every tourist would take a 'jar of sand' - a debatable point, but for the sake of argument lets assume 1 in 10 tourists would take a jar of sand. 

That would be equivalent to 1mm layer of sand being removed annually from Koh Samet main Sai Keaw beach. 

 

But, not every tourist who visits Koh Samet stays on a single beach Sai Keaw Beach) there are 14 'white sand' beaches on Koh Samet, so the figure would still be much less than that. 

 

It could be argued that of Koh Samet's 700,000 annual visitors, 30% stay at Sai Keaw Beach:

i.e.  210,000 annual visitors, and if we take the same assumption that 1 in 10 may take a jar of sand thats 21,000 jars of sand - thats equivalent to a layer of 0.3mm of sand.

 

If you can follow the logic and the basic calculation you can see that tourists taking sand from a beach is completely insignificant. There are bigger concerns... i.e. resorts not disposing of their waste water, litter etc...  the Park officials are nothing more than money hungry, these examples show they care nothing of the environment and everything for extorting tourists. 

 

 

 

 

Appreciate the time and effort you put into wheeling out the logic machine.

[connda]

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Its agreed that this is poor behavior, but a fine of 5000-50,000 baht just seems like madness when someone (a Thai) gets charged 500 baht for assault. 

Yeah.  Kick a foreigner in the face and it's a hand-slap and a small fine for the Thai committing the battery.  That shows the government's relative respect for wildlife including feral dogs as opposed to human beings whom are non Thai.  It's pretty much open season of foreigners - however, just don't kill a lot of Chinese at one time as it's bad for tourism. 

[Mavideol]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

A police report was filed. The Chinese face a fine of between 5,000 and 50,000 baht. 

nah... they are Chinese, a slap/tap in the back and all back to normal, keep in mind TAT wants them here, fines and police reports won't bring them back

[Krataiboy]

Yet another odious example of hypocritical virtue signalling from a country with an appalling record on conservation and animal rights.

 

The highly-publicised rough treatment of a handful of rudimentary echinoderms by (of course!) a few foreign visitors pales into insignficance compared to the endemic and rampant homegrown abuse of Thai wildlife.

 

Spare a thought for all those elephants brutally trained to dance, play footbal; and perform other silly stunts for gawping crowds of tourists. Not to mention the tamed and shabby tigers somehow persuaded to jump through blazing hoops for a quick buck, or the baby lorises and gibbons snatched from their murdered mothers to serve as props for beach and pavement photographers.

 

Then there are the numerous badly-maintained animal prisons with the effrontery to call themselves zoos or wildlife parks. And where else in the civilised world could one expect routinely to come across grown men knocking wild birds out of roadside trees with catapults?

 

No more virtue signalling, please, Thailand, until you have become a darn sight more virtuous.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Krataiboy

[toenail]

7 hours ago, Galactus said:

 

i guess you have no idea!

there will be no sand in the future there! if every single tourist going to Koh Samet collects a jar of beach sand!

think about it, millions of jar full of beach sand disappears every year and beach is gone.

rings a bell? if not, hope they fine you next time to make the bells ringing.

OMG- I little kid taking a handful of sand & small shells back home. Who knows, maybe someday he’ll become a marine biologist or a scientist because of his curiosity & interest of the sea as a kid. 

—His collection from the beach is not as much of a worry as some of the behavior adults do when visiting LOS. 

Edited May 23, 2019 by toenail

[Pravda]

2 hours ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Remember Thailand - this is the kind of tourists you were asking for and encouraging. 

 

What about scouser Lee?

[bluesofa]

8 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

More disproportionate penalties and Faux-Outrage at foreigners actions in Thailand... 

Its agreed that this is poor behavior, but a fine of 5000-50,000 baht just seems like madness when someone (a Thai) gets charged 500 baht for assault. 

It really is high time that Thailand gets its fines and penalties aligned with some balance and common sense.

"Thailand gets its fines and penalties aligned with some balance and common sense" = today's oxymoron.

[rebo]

8 hours ago, Galactus said:

if every single tourist going to Koh Samet collects a jar of beach sand

What a nonsense ...!!!

 

[owl sees all]

13 minutes ago, rebo said:

What a nonsense ...!!!

 

And what about those kids playing that game with grasshoppers and a magnifying glass? Or those cobra teasers?

 

I was at the croc' farm shortly after that tourist got eaten.

[Johnnyngai]

23 hours ago, toenail said:

Are the Chinese so clueless or disrespectful once they leave China because in their communistic society back home everything is so controlled?  They seem to lack common sense where ever they go. 

Just a few years back, they were still using outhouse type dry toilets complete with maggots and flies.  

What do you expect from a bunch of caveman ?        

[Johnnyngai]

15 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Yet another odious example of hypocritical virtue signalling from a country with an appalling record on conservation and animal rights.

 

The highly-publicised rough treatment of a handful of rudimentary echinoderms by (of course!) a few foreign visitors pales into insignficance compared to the endemic and rampant homegrown abuse of Thai wildlife.

 

Spare a thought for all those elephants brutally trained to dance, play footbal; and perform other silly stunts for gawping crowds of tourists. Not to mention the tamed and shabby tigers somehow persuaded to jump through blazing hoops for a quick buck, or the baby lorises and gibbons snatched from their murdered mothers to serve as props for beach and pavement photographers.

 

Then there are the numerous badly-maintained animal prisons with the effrontery to call themselves zoos or wildlife parks. And where else in the civilised world could one expect routinely to come across grown men knocking wild birds out of roadside trees with catapults?

 

No more virtue signalling, please, Thailand, until you have become a darn sight more virtuous.

All third world countries are the same. 

Life is so harsh for them that they know nothing about love for animals. 

[Johnnyngai]

17 hours ago, JimSaints said:

Please lets hear from TAT if they still try to lure these savages into Thailand …

Third world vs third world, don't they deserve each other ? ?  

Why does a first world person like yourself want to come to a third world place like Thailand ? 

[johng]

Don't worry  it was all just a big mistake !!

 

[Galactus]

22 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

So lets think about it...  just so we have an idea....

 

While laws do exist in many places against taking sand, the volume of sand on a beach is colossal, the amount potentially removed is extremely minimal. Issues such as longshore drift move sand in 1000's of order of magnitude greater than any impact 'tourists collecting a jar of sand' could ever have. 

 

---------

 

Ok - think about this... just so you have an idea...  

 

Using Koh Samet as an example as it has some of Thailands most visited beaches, it has 700,000 tourist visitors per year (and its where this extortion happens).

If every single one of these tourists took a 1/2 Litre jar of sand (500cm3) home with them that would be 350,000,000 cm3 of sand, thats 350m3 of sand. 

 

Imagine a 1km long beach x 35meters wide. 

The top 1cm layer of sand across the beach is equivalent to 350m3 of sand. 

 

Every single visitor to Koh Samet taking a large jar of sand 'could' make a 1cm deep impact on just one of Koh Samet beaches.

 

Not every tourist would take a 'jar of sand' - a debatable point, but for the sake of argument lets assume 1 in 10 tourists would take a jar of sand. 

That would be equivalent to 1mm layer of sand being removed annually from Koh Samet main Sai Keaw beach. 

 

But, not every tourist who visits Koh Samet stays on a single beach Sai Keaw Beach) there are 14 'white sand' beaches on Koh Samet, so the figure would still be much less than that. 

 

It could be argued that of Koh Samet's 700,000 annual visitors, 30% stay at Sai Keaw Beach:

i.e.  210,000 annual visitors, and if we take the same assumption that 1 in 10 may take a jar of sand thats 21,000 jars of sand - thats equivalent to a layer of 0.3mm of sand.

 

If you can follow the logic and the basic calculation you can see that tourists taking sand from a beach is completely insignificant. There are bigger concerns... i.e. resorts not disposing of their waste water, litter etc...  the Park officials are nothing more than money hungry, these examples show they care nothing of the environment and everything for extorting tourists. 

 

 

 

 

sorry, your calculation doesnt make sense. you are basically trying to white wash your insensitive actions and actions or other with a number salad.

main point here is trying to preserve a beach. 1 cm is gone last year and another is gone this year and 1 cm will be gone next year again soon beach will disappear or get damaged with all the life it harbors.

most beaches around the world loses sand and ground due to rise in sea levels and global warming and if tourists start to collect jars full of sand, we are screwed.

[Proud Father]

17 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

Correct me if I am wrong please, but wasn't a Russian Lady fined 100,000 Baht last year for feeding fish..........or do Chinese get a favoured discount......

What's on the Menu? 

 

I remember that story too, I just located and reread the article in the Thaiger.com. It leaves as many questions as it does awnser thou. It appears she had to pay a Bail bond of 100,000 Baht, was jailed for two days, taken to court, passport siezed and waiting a criminal background check to be completed of up to a month prior to her sentencing or a fine to be laid against her.

 

Did she stay for extended judicail system justice and pay a fine and /or face further jail time or did she get her passport back and jump bail leaving the bail money behind...it would be nice to know the outcome of the case.

 

I would say the culprits in this case are lucky to have thier freedom at the moment.

 

Fish-feeding Russian tourist jailed in Phuket

Published

 2 years ago 

on

 February 22, 2017

By

 Legacy Phuket Gazette

PHUKET: A Russian tourist spent two nights in jail for feeding fish at Koh Racha before paying 100,000 baht bail to be released from a holding cell at Phuket Provincial Court yesterday. 

Her passport has been held by the court and she is not permitted to leave the country until after her case is tried there. Her initial hearing is not until March 6.

Olga Smirnova, 53, was arrested by Marine and Coastal Resources Department (DMCR) officers at Koh Racha Yai on Sunday and was later taken to Chalong Police Station 

“We allowed for her to be released on bail the same day that she was arrested. However, she could not raise the required amount of 100,000 baht (approx USD 3,000), so she had to stay in the holding cell at the police station for two nights,” Lt Sakarin Sangjaroen of Chalong Police admitted to the Phuket Gazette.

“As per Thai law, a suspect can stay in a police station holding cell for a maximum of 48 hours. After that we have to send them to court jail, which we did yesterday,” he added. 

Ms Smirnova was bailed out by her friend who paid the money on her behalf.

“At this stage, we are waiting for the results of a ‘criminal background’ check before submitting the case to the prosecutor. We cannot say exactly how long that will be. Generally, the process takes about a month,” said Lt Sakarin. 

The Gazette contacted Ms Smirnova for a comment. However, her friend said she is not comfortable giving an interview at this time.

— Kongleaphy Keam

[Krataiboy]

3 hours ago, Johnnyngai said:

All third world countries are the same. 

Life is so harsh for them that they know nothing about love for animals. 

Hardly a third world country any more. I suspect that, like a Chinese snorkeller deep-diving for sea urchins, they've simply come up so fast they've all got the bends.