Dutch tourist Roslan Bendenia, 22, rented a spear gun from a local and traveled to Phi Phi Island, west of Thailand, near Phuket, at around 1 p.m. and spent the day fishing on August 9.
He then posted a video on TikTok showing off his catch of five fish, including a Moray eel he killed with a single knife strike. Bendenia’s video angered Thai netizens.
According to the Bangkok Post, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Warawut Silpa-Archa, realized that among the fish that Bendenia caught were two parrotfish (or parrotfish), which are very rare and threatened with extinction. He immediately asked the police to arrest and deport the person in the video. Last Monday, Bendenia was arrested while sitting in a cafe in Chalong (Phuket). His TikTok account was later locked and the video was removed.
The perpetrator presented himself at the Phuket police station.
The next day, Lieutenant Colonel Ekkachai Siri of the Phuket Tourist Police Department said Bendenia admitted to being the person in the video and also to hunting the fish. However, he said he did not know he was in a protected marine area. In fact, Bendenia had violated the provisions of Thailand's National Parks Act 2019, which states "that he has an impact on the ecosystem, biodiversity, environment and natural resources."
Bangkok Post quoted some lawyers saying that Bendenia could face up to 5 years in prison, or a fine of 500,000 baht (nearly 330 million VND) if convicted.
Bendenia is not the first tourist to get into trouble with Thai authorities while visiting the sea. In February 2017, a Russian woman was fined 1,000 baht (about 650,000 VND) when she was caught feeding bread to fish on Ko Racha Yai (Phuket). A week earlier, a 35-year-old Chinese man was fined 100,000 baht (about 65 million VND) for stealing two parrot fish.
In 2018, six French tourists were arrested in Phuket for hunting parrotfish with spearguns in the Promthep Cape area. They were each fined 100,000 baht and banned from returning to Thailand permanently. In September 2020, two Hungarian and Italian tourists were ordered deported for playing with marine life on Ko Phangan.
