Tourist faces jail after sitting on coral - says he thought it was just rocks

[Zack61]

Still amazes me how stupid people are posting their crimes on the internet Dum as dog S#!t.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

In theory offenders can be jailed for up to ten years and/or fined a million baht.

You get less for killing people...

What a weird country?

[Liverpool Lou]

6 minutes ago, connda said:

Man sitting on coral:  Ten years in prison.

Who got ten years for that, then?

[jacko45k]

32 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Can not be! Only 'dirty farang' get bullied, cheated, ripped off or mugged in Thailand..I KNOW BECAUSE I READ IT HERE ON THIS FORUM.

Not true of course... they do it to their own quite liberally. 

[Liverpool Lou]

2 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

5 hours ago, webfact said:

In theory offenders can be jailed for up to ten years and/or fined a million baht.

You get less for killing people...

What a weird country?

But in practice, which is what counts, no one has ever been jailed or fined B1m for that charge.   Not such a "weird country".

[The Hammer2021]

7 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Not true of course... they do it to their own quite liberally. 

Ah..you must be a Thai apologist, with Rose tinted spectacles..I've read about people like you on this forum !

[smedly]

and what about the owners/managers of companies that contaminate the sea and coast with massive oil spills - who is causing the actual damage 

 

ridiculous 

[jeanpierre]

43 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Except if you are a fishing company...then you can drag your nets and anchor through the reef or use poison or explosions to catch the fish..... or speed boat driver full of tourists, throwing trash into the sea, oh, or oil companies having oil spills, or hotels pumping sewerage and grey water into the sea... That's all ok.   But don't pick up a sea slug or accidently sit on a lump of coral....that's obviously much worse for the reef and marine wildlife. 

 

let the crude oil flow

[spidermike007]

And the crime is serious, punishable under several articles promulgated in 2019 to protect Thailand's natural resources.

 

Really? Thailand is so NOT SERIOUS about environmental protection. They allow raw sewage to be dumped directly into the sea. They barely keep track of heinous behavior on the part of the fishing fleets. They refuse to devote enough of a budget to the guys who are actually serious about protecting the seas. And now this? The hypocrisy and insincerity is astonishing. Dump, dump, and dump some more. Then arrest a foreigner for sitting on the coral that is already spoiled and half dead, for show and tell purposes. Does anyone not see through this ridiculous charade?

[hotchilli]

25 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

But in practice, which is what counts, no one has ever been jailed or fined B1m for that charge.   Not such a "weird country".

So the law means nothing?

[Sparktrader]

4 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Sure!
 

Nope!

It was shaped like a penis

[ourmanflint]

He should have dropped anchor on it and sat on the anchor. No problem

[vandeventer]

5 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Bureaucracy gone mad .........!!!!

A Thai tourist, they just don't teach them enough at school these days. A rock? I'm sure if any damage was  done it was minor and not news worthy.. 

[Liverpool Lou]

4 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

30 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

But in practice, which is what counts, no one has ever been jailed or fined B1m for that charge.   Not such a "weird country".

So the law means nothing?

No.  The quoted penalties are the maximum, not the mandatory punishments, that's why reports use the phrases  "up to..." or "could be...".

[VocalNeal]

Silly Tw@t for posting photo

[Bobydog]

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

And the message is, don't <deleted> around with Thailand's marine's, fauna and flora or you'll pay heavily for it...

I wonder if that includes "Blind Eels & Moonfish......

[Nabby]

What an a*shole. 

[Dustdevil]

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

And the message is, don't <deleted> around with Thailand's marine's, fauna and flora or you'll pay heavily for it...

But throwing tons and tons of plastic bags into Thailand's waters is acceptable if done so by locals.

[Sydebolle]

Wondering how TAT is turning this into yet another tourism spinner generation trillions of extra Baht, filling tens of thousands of empty hotels and restaurants.

I fear that Thailand is a loose cannon and will suffer dear consequences due to all those idiots at the helm - quite right so! A failed state .....

[David T Pike]

"I got stoned and I missed it..."  

[Joules]

I am gratified that at least it wasn't a dirty farang this time!

[Cake Monster]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The environment minister Varawut Silpa-archa has frequently got involved to throw the book at people damaging his country's natural resources, reports ASEAN NOW. 

This Minister should be more proactive in stopping all the Toxic waste dumping and Fly tipping, which ultimately leads to Toxic smoke fires

[Peterphuket]

Nice picture, I like to do so the next time, unfortunately I can't diving.

[n8sail]

3 hours ago, crazykopite said:

He’s a Thai national it will be a slap on the wrist unlike the poor farang who got deported for holding a sea slug . I’ve often seen Thais raiding the sea bead collecting baskets full of sea urchins I would of thought that was illegal they tend to do it at nightfall but nobody seems to be bothered about it .

Sea urchins are massively over-populated in Gulf of Thailand...  this is because their main predator, crabs, are massively over-fished here.  I highly encourage MORE people to harvest them!

The coral this douche-nozzle is sitting on is a soft coral species, indeed damaged by physical touching.  Idiot.   At the depth he's at, approximately 3-5 meters, there are seldom exposed rocks, virtually everything hard is covered by corals, especially at Koh Khram Noi Northern end where this photo almost certainly was taken as that is where all the tourist cattle moo-cow boats go to.

 

I've spent hundreds of hours of my life sailing, scuba and free-diving this area.

 

OF course the environmental minister does nothing at all about the hundreds of Thai fishing boats anchoring on top of this exact type of coral every day to rest after a full night of squid fishing.

[Peterphuket]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

So the law means nothing?

As with many laws in the LOS.

[Peterphuket]

I wonder, as in the Pang nga bay and Andaman sea with so many boats, theoretically it would no longer be possible to anchor.

[off road pat]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

And the message is, don't <deleted> around with Thailand's marine's, fauna and flora or you'll pay heavily for it...

Nah,...The message is don't post pictures of you touching coral on the net  !!!... I have dived several times in Thailand and have seen multiple tourist boats drop anchor on and near corals,...Even where authority's have assigned places marked with buoys away from the corals,....And have let the tourists walk on corals,...

[Mavideol]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

And the message is, don't <deleted> around with Thailand's marine's, fauna and flora or you'll pay heavily for it...

but you can "fluck" around with anything else 555

[LikeItHot]

You can't sit on it but hotels can pump sewage on it.

[pacovl46]

8 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Bureaucracy gone mad .........!!!!

Right, corals are bleaching and dying off on a scale never seen before, by the way, it takes forever for them to grow back IF they grow back at all, but it’s bureaucracy gone mad when they punish someone for sitting on one!

 

Get a grip on reality! 

Edited February 14, 2022 by pacovl46