12 hours ago, traveller101 said:

Interesting - the diving tourists got charged for an offence that carries a sentence of up to 2 years jail and/or a 200'000 Baht fine  ......

while the dive company and their dive instructors got away with a proverbial wai.

Just wondering whether or not the Chinese have been instructed not to Interfere with marine life and the possible consequences of doing that under thai law prior to the dive.

I agree.  
If you want this to stop, suspend the tour company licenses for 6 months, first offense.

No need to apologize you're chinese you can do what you want.

If I had a dime for every time I fingered a starfish.....????

They shouldn't be touching or picking up sea life ... BUT ... reality, they aren't really going to hurt it, unless forcefully removing it from what it's attached to, if it's attached to anything at the time.

 

Go to most aquariums, and they'll usually have at 'touch tank' of starfish & cucumbers, urchins and whatever, can't be hurt or hurt the kids.

 

... nuff said

 

More selective national shaming & prosecutions ... try not polluting and dumping your trash in the seas first, if TH cars so much.

10 hours ago, Shetraveler said:

Oooh, said a farang.  Same same with your country.

You must be just as idiotic, no one said "Asians" , we are talking about spitting, disruptive, rude, sneaking into hotel rooms , classic Chinese.

Starfish do horrendous damage to coral reefs. A better option would be to put a bounty on starfish so that they be taken off the reefs to preserve them.

This squarely outs the Thai dive industry 50-60 years behind the rest of the World including Mexico.  

Seed the divesites with some of these nasties! 

3 hours ago, BritScot said:

Bizzare! I think having been a master diving instructor with well over 300 dives in thai waters. Leading dive groups sometimes 2 morning dives then 2 afternoon dives and a night dive (5 dives in a day) gives me adequate experience to comment on any diving practices in thai waters. 

The question was whether you have dived at that specific site and witnessed boats dropping anchors on corals again at that specific site.

 

My experiences at Racha Yai were fabulous until about 2015 or so, when the place became overrun with Chinese and it was simply impossible to find a boat to the island, forget accomodation. We never used anchors nor mooring lines... freedivers, too deep for that. The boat would simply hang around until we were finished. Also no touching starfish ???? But I do remember a lot of mooring points in shallower waters. I also remember a lot of chinese tourists (not divers) happily walking on the reefs with rubbers shoes. I think the responsibility should be with their tour guides, the tourists probably doen't know the harm they are doing.

1 hour ago, arithai12 said:

The question was whether you have dived at that specific site and witnessed boats dropping anchors on corals again at that specific site.

 

My experiences at Racha Yai were fabulous until about 2015 or so, when the place became overrun with Chinese and it was simply impossible to find a boat to the island, forget accomodation. We never used anchors nor mooring lines... freedivers, too deep for that. The boat would simply hang around until we were finished. Also no touching starfish ???? But I do remember a lot of mooring points in shallower waters. I also remember a lot of chinese tourists (not divers) happily walking on the reefs with rubbers shoes. I think the responsibility should be with their tour guides, the tourists probably doen't know the harm they are doing.

Not many Chinese tourists right now and no more reef walking. But yes, agree with your general assessment. Racha Yai is a nice end of the day but divers have to take care due to boat traffic.

When we were kids we used to say "Look with your eyes not with your hands". Still works after all these years.